Fix You
by thenlaugh
Summary: Harry goes to war, breaking Ginny's heart in the process. Returning 4 years later in the background of his best friends' wedding, he finds her to be not the same girl. As she fights what he knows is right, can find what they need in each other? Pre DH HG
1. Beauty in the Moonlight

**Chapter One – Beauty in the Moonlight**

* * *

"_We can't be together."_

"_It's for some stupid noble reason, isn't it?"..._

"_He'll know, he'll find out. He'll try and get to me through you."_

"_What if I don't care?"_

"_I care."..._

"_I knew you wouldn't be happy unless you were fighting Voldemort. Maybe that's why I like you so much."_

* * *

_August 14th, 1997_

His eyes had been on her all night. Normally it was her tresses of red hair that caught attention, but this was a Weasley wedding after all, and violent locks were conventional here. In her bridesmaid robes, dancing with her father, she looked very pretty indeed.

He sat in the small, gnarled garden, luminescent with small fairies flying to and fro, helping the colourful lantern, the bright stars and waning moon above in the creamy blue sky light up the area. Even the small broom shed was decorated, garlanded with a mixture of pale flowers and ominously magical ones, as the whole garden was. He looked up to the small field where he had played Quidditch a thousand times, some guests now milling up their for private conversations, away from the din created from the music, laughter and the general happiness a wedding created, a rare occurrence due to the destructive state their world was in at the moment.

An elderly veela sat at the bar, men many years younger approaching her all the time, despite her age. Her beautiful old face turned harsh at their requests to dance, disturbing her peace as she chatted to her ten year old granddaughter and the witch serving drinks. The short wizard blew into his saxophone as his dark skinned band mate crooned over to the dancers, a slow song for the swaying couples. The newlyweds were nearby, Fleur's hair shining like the stars; Bill's healing face gleaming with happiness, too. _She_ was near them, dancing with Mr Weasley. He traced her steps, watched her shoes press into the grass, her hair danced in the slight breeze, her laughter as she chatted to her father. Swilling and sipping his drink, his thoughts were interrupted.

"Harry!" It was Fred. "Have you even been listening to me?"

"Not really," Harry said, now turning his attention back to the table where Ron, Hermione and the twins sat. The Burrow's garden had been set up for Bill and Fleur's wedding reception, the whimsical garden littered with their friends, family and colleagues.

"Well, if you're gonna run off on everyone for Merlin knows how long, you should be appreciating us while you can," George told him

Harry had been at the Burrow for a little over a week, and upon hearing of Hogwarts not reopening, he had felt the need to inform the Weasleys' of his, Ron and Hermione's imminent departure. This had mixed reactions. Fred and George had lightened it by making dirty insinuations of where they were going and what they were doing there. Mr Weasley had merely told them not to hesitate when asking for help. Mrs Weasley had been surprisingly accepting. She had cried a little, but realizing what they were doing in basics, she had devoted her time and energy to cooking them food to take with them. Ginny hadn't been as easy to get this idea by. After hearing the news, she tugged Harry into the only conversation they had had all summer.

"_Let me come with you," she had demanded in a whisper on the staircase, her head peeking out of her room she was sharing with Hermione._

"_No," He had replied. "It's too dangerous."_

"_We've talked about this Harry, I don't really care."_

_"We've also discussed that I do." He had said sadly. "No."_

"I think we're very appreciateable," Fred said, jerking Harry once more back into reality. Hermione shot Fred a look of pity.

"That's not even a word, Fred," She told him.

"What's wrong with being creative?"

"How's the shop going anyway?" Ron asked his brothers.

"Booming, as usual," George told him.

"Especially since last week," Fred said.

"We had a bunch of fourteen year old girls clean us out of love-potions," George explained. "They were discussing the best way to slip Harry Potter one, because apparently, it didn't work last time."

Ron snorted into his drink.

"Jealous?" Harry asked him wearily as the song finished. "Come with me to get  
another butterbeer."

Ron got up and he and Harry shuffled through the crowded garden towards the bar to fetch drinks.

"So, they still don't know about you and Ginny?" Ron asked him quietly.

"No," Harry grunted. "And I'd prefer it stay that way."

"I thought you guys had broken up," Ron said. "Why does it matter then?"

Harry turned to look at him. 'I dumped her, that doesn't mean I don't like her." He said. "Just because you didn't feel the need to interrogate me about it doesn't mean your brothers, especially Bill and Charlie, will feel the same way."

"Oh," Ron said. "Yeah, I wouldn't really fancy getting on their bad side."

"Also," Harry asked him. "Could you imagine what your mum would be like?"

"She'd hug you to death," Ron said. "I see what you mean, mate."

"In basics, your family is kind of intimidating," Harry said.

"I can see how they would be," Ron laughed as they reached the bar.

"Two butterbeers, thanks," Harry asked hired witch standing behind it.

"Anything for Harry Potter," She smiled and pulled up two bottles, and she winked at him and Ron walked away.

Ron burst out laughing as they went back to the table.

"Shut up."

They got back to the table, and Harry's seat had been taken by Ginny. Ron smirked at him and sat down in his own between Ginny and Hermione. Harry pulled out his wand and summoned a chair through the night air over to him, and he sat down between Hermione and George. Ginny was deep in conversation with the twins about how the Cannons were going in the Quidditch league.

"We would have won the game against Portree if the ref had have picked up that blagging foul, I think," She said seriously.

George thought carefully for a moment. "I don't think so…"

Harry watched her over the table. Her hair flew a little in the faint breeze. It was really a lovely colour, he decided. As were her eyes. They were brown like Hermione's, but they were prettier somehow. He began counting the  
freckles on her nose.

"D'you reckon the bar witch will give us something a bit stronger, George?"

"Naah, you know that Mum told her not to."

"Tell her it's for Harry," Ron said. "She tried to hit on him before."

Ginny looked up at him. Blushing, he turned to face the twins.

"Yeah," Harry said. "Just say it's for me and she'll give it to you."

The twins jumped up and made their way over to the bar, leaving an awkward silence. Ron drummed his fingers on the table.

"So, stuff, eh?" He said abruptly.

"You're a buffoon, Ron," Hermione said to him as Fred and George got back, holding what looked to be big glasses of firewhiskey.

"Claudia gave us these," Fred said indicating towards the bar witch.

"Under the condition that we send Harry over there," George finished for him, pulling Harry out of his chair.

"Naah, I'll pass thanks twins," Harry said, sitting back down.

"Got your eye on someone else, eh Pot-Pot?" Fred asked him. This caused not only Ron but Hermione as well to snort into her drink as both Harry and Ginny blushed. The twins didn't seem to notice this though.

"Mind your own, thanks," Harry said to the twins, who looked curiously irritated. They quickly resumed their Quidditch conversation.

* * *

"This is our last song for the night, you cool cats." The lead singer of the wedding band chimed. "Then we will be saying goodnight, leaving you to party 'til the early hours of the morning."

The guitarist strummed a chord softly as people scampered and partnered off. Harry had danced with Mrs Weasley, Hermione, Claudia the bar witch and even little Gabrielle Delacour throughout the night.

"Dance with me Forge?" Cried a drunk twin.

"Certainly, my dearest Gred!" His just as drunk copy said, standing up and embracing his twin as they moved out to the dance floor.

Ron shrugged and motioned to Hermione, who stood up blushing and got up to dance with him. Ron shot a pointed look at Harry as they went.

Ginny snickered to Hermione's retreating back. Harry looked around to her. He had been avoiding her gaze since before, turning away when she returned his stares. It was the first time they had really been alone together since they were at Hogwarts.

She turned to face him. He didn't shy away.

"Just one dance?" He asked her quietly. She just peered up at him. "Going away present of sorts?"

"Are you sure that it wouldn't put me in danger?" She questioned him ruthlessly.

"It won't." He replied.

"Sure then." She smiled as he took her hand and lead her to the dance floor.

Pulling her close, he caught sight of the twins.

"Look at your brothers.' He murmured into her hair. It smelled nice.

Fred and George were embracing tightly, hands on each others butt, calling each other pet names loudly. Clearly, they thought they were being funny. It was gaining shocked looks from Fleur's family, and her and Bill's friends.

She laughed softly into his shoulder. He caught Ron's eye over the dance floor and Ron grinned at him. Hermione turned to look too, giving the knowing smile that only she could give. Motioning rudely to them with his hand, he turned back to Ginny.

"I reckon Ron'll finally get his act together tonight and finally tell Hermione what he thinks of her," Harry muttered to her.

"He better," Ginny said. "It's really rather annoying. But you didn't ask me to dance so we could talk about my brother."

"Maybe I did," Harry said slyly. "I've missed our chats this summer. I was kind of hoping that one little one would make up for it."

"But why haven't you talked to me the whole time you've been here?" She asked, looking him determinedly in the eye. "We could have just talked." He looked at her intensely for a moment.

"If I talked to you, I'd want to kiss you. Like I do now," Harry told her. "I wouldn't have been able to stand just talking to you. But we're leaving tomorrow, so I think I should be able to restrain myself." He smiled at her sadly.

"If you wanted to kiss me, then kiss me," she said as if it was the simplest thing in the world.

"You know I can't." He said. "I told you. You understand."

"That doesn't mean I agree with it." She said slightly angrily. "Can I please come with you?"

"I can't put you in dang-" He began.

"Bullshit, Harry." She said. "I can look after myself." He just surveyed her silently for a moment, staring unrelentlessly at her.

The song then finished, and all the dancing couples broke apart.

He saw Mrs Weasley peck Mr Weasley on the cheek. Fleur smiled up at Bill happily. Ron and Hermione stood in a tight embrace, Fred and George doing the same next to them, mocking their little brother. Harry glanced over to Lupin and the pink haired Tonks, holding hands as they sat at their table. Ginny stood in front of him, staring up at him.

"Let's all say goodnight to the happy new couple!" The wedding singer called out into the crisp night air. Applause broke out as Bill and Fleur walked towards where a portkey stood for them. Fleur turned around with her bouquet, and eager females formed a crowd behind her. Harry looked straight into Ginny's eyes as the flowers flew past the group and into an unsuspecting Hermione's arms as she conversed with the twins. Ginny turned her head and saw Hermione, half pleased, half horrified holding the flowers as if they were going to explode. Fred and George burst out into laughter.

"Hey Ron!" One called, and Ginny burst into giggles. Harry turned his head and laughed quietly, too. They watched the drunk twin's teasing as Bill and Fleur took hold of their portkey, and as Mrs Weasley wailed in anguish and put on some old wizarding records.

Harry turned back to her. She looked back up at him. He kissed her, hard and short, long enough for her to taste the alcohol on his breath, and for him to taste it on hers. He pulled away quickly; no-one had seen. She looked up at him curiously, face radiating in the moonlight.

"Why did you stop?"

He broke out into a grin.

"Let's get out of here." He said, leading her by the hand up to the field where they had so often played Quidditch, and into the nearby woods.


	2. Broken Without Warning

**Chapter Two – Broken Without Warning**

* * *

Glasses still on, his face was pressed into the dirt in an uncomfortable looking way, his shirt was lying several feet away from where he was sleeping half naked. She smiled down on him as she zipped up her golden bridesmaid robes. Looking around the quiet wood, the lush green of the trees and the dew on the patchy grass gleamed in the early morning sunlight. Harry was leaving tonight for the unknown, and he had agreed with her last night: she was going with him.

"Harry," Ginny said, kneeling down next to his half naked form, gently pushing against his bare shoulder.

"Piss off, Ron," He murmured and rolled over.

"I hope you don't actually think that I'm Ron," She whispered loudly into his ear. His eyes jerked open, squinting in the early morning sunlight. Shading his eyes with his hand, several expressions flittered over his face; shock, realization, a quick blush, a wide grin, slight embarrassment and he settled on a sly smile.

"Good morning," He chirped knowingly at her, kissing the closest part of her he could grab; her forearm.

'Hello," she smirked. "You should probably get up." He reluctantly pulled himself into a sitting position.

"It's so early though, Ginny," He said, rubbing his eyes behind his glasses. "Who gets up at this time?"

"My Mum," Ginny said sweetly, passing Harry his shirt. "So unless you feel like explaining to her why we're coming in early in the morning wearing the same clothes as last night and looking rather dishevelled, we had better try to get inside before she notices we aren't there."

"I can't be bothered getting up though," He said childishly. "You can't make me."

"I reckon I could if I wanted to," She smirked. "Get up that is." He blushed rapidly. "Now, get up before my Mum wakes up or face disembowelment courtesy of the twins."

"Oh," he said, and relocated his clothes rapidly from the ground to his body.

"Now, which way is your house?" He asked dumbly, staring around the little forest they were in.

"This way," She told him, and tugged his hand after her.

"Did I say go yet?" He asked her, tugging her hand back and pressing her against a tree. She giggled as he kissed her nose. "You know what I said to you last night?"

"You said a lot of things last night," Ginny replied cheekily.

"You know what I mean." Harry said.

"I do know what you mean," She said, as he kissed her forehead and pulled her in the general direction of her house. "And I love you, too." He grinned ridiculously wide at her, and they kept walking.

"You know," He said, sounding mildly apprehensive. "You're the only person that I've ever said that to."

She felt her heart tug and was silent for a second. "Well, you're sweet, aren't you?"

"I am," He concurred.

The walked in a comfortable silence out of the wood and began making their across the meadow, towards the remnants of the previous night's wedding lying scattered around the Burrow's garden.

"When are we going to tell Ron and Hermione?" Ginny asked him.

"Let's not," Harry smirked. "Let's just see how long it takes them to notice."

"I think they're gonna realize pretty quickly, Harry," She said. How would they not notice when she was tagging along on their little adventure?

"No they won't," He said as they approached the rubble which were the wedding decorations the night before. "Not if they don't see us together, why would they?" He looked at her inquisitorially. She thought he was joking for a brief moment before realizing that he was serious.

With a sudden feeling of betrayal and anger, followed by rage, she realized that for once, her and Harry might not just be on the same wavelength. They always had been before; she felt he had always had the ability to see straight into her head. Not this time apparently. She felt used.

"Harry!" She half yelled angrily at him. Shocked, he looked like a deer in the headlights.

"Wh-w-what?" he stuttered, taken aback by her sudden change in demeanour.

"I can't believe this!" She cried at him. "You're a git, you know that?"

"Ginny, what have I done?" He asked alarmed. "What's up, you were fine five minutes ago!"

She looked at him huffily, her face and ears reddening.

"You're not taking me with you are you?" She questioned him angrily.

"You know that already," Harry said to her. "Is this why you're suddenly angry?"

She slapped his shoulder. Hard.

"You are the biggest git since that word was invented!" She ranted at him as she felt a slight alignment to her mother. "Last night you pretty much said that you were taking me with you!"

"I wouldn't have ever said that, Ginny." He told her. "You're not coming, so I never would have said that I would take you with us. You know that." He looked a mixture of concerned and alarmed.

"You did say though!" She half yelled at him. "Last night, I told you I was coming with you, that I didn't care how dangerous it was, and you didn't object!"

"But did I say 'Ginny, feel free to come with me, Hermione and your brother on an extremely dangerous mission that you know nothing about'?" He blurted to her. "'And by the way, we have no idea of how long we will be gone and what we will really be doing?'"

"Well, no," She began.

"Then you're not coming," he explained boldly, crossing his arms across his chest and kicking some streamers that were lying on the ground. "Plain and simple, Ginny."

"You are infuriating!" She told him. "Just let me come with you!"

"No!" He exclaimed. "It's too-"

"If you dare say dangerous, I will hex your hair off!" She interrupted him.

He paused for a moment. "Risky," he finished, a smirk on his face.

"Aarrgh!" She cried at him. "Despite what the average person thinks, I can look after myself, Harry."

"I know you can, Gin," he said earnestly. "I just don't want you to have to!"

"But you do want to be with me," She stated, thinking of the previous night angrily.

"Yes," Harry said. "Glad you picked up on that," he joked. She shot a glare at him irritably.

"So, you're expecting me to sit around waiting for you like a good little girl?" She snarled at him.

"Er, I suppose that's a way to put it," He said, only slightly deterred by how this sounded.

She looked up at his face shocked. He had never been like this before to her. Hermione had told her how she'd been on the victim end of what she had called his pig-headedness, but Ginny had never really believed that to come from him. Standing here, arms folded with determination on his face, he seemed as stubborn as Ron at the moment. Or herself, she thought dryly.

"I can't believe you," Ginny said. "You've never been like this before."

"I have," Harry said. "You've just never had to deal with it."

"I don't see why you just don't take me!" She exclaimed. "You know what, I reckon that maybe I could help you somehow."

"It's. Too. Dangerous." He said slowly, putting great emphasis on each word.

"And I can look after myself!"

He sighed. "If we've been over it once, we've been over it a million times. You're not coming."

"Why not?" She asked. "Just bury your pride for once. I bet you can't even give me a justified reason of why you can't take me along." He opened his mouth. "And saying that it's dangerous doesn't count."

He sighed again, running his hands through his hair from frustration. "I could give you one thousand and one reasons, Gin," He said resolutely, "but let's put it like this way, it's simpler. I don't want you there." He turned to walk away.

"Why, to protect me or something?" She demanded, pushing over a chair to face him.

"No, I just don't want you there," He said plainly, avoiding her gaze. He side stepped her, and walked towards the kitchen door.

She felt a lump rise in her throat. She had liked him for so long, and she had finally got what she wanted, only to have it torn away after such a short time. She remembered leading him to the hospital wing after Dumbledore's death; he had looked so hopeless. A sudden realisation popped into her head. He didn't want her there, but-

"You need me though," She said smugly to Harry's retreating back. He stopped in his tracks. "You need me." He turned to face her.

"What?" He asked, his voice quivering slightly. She could see his resolve starting to wane.

"You need me there," Ginny explained simply. "You may not like it, but you need me there. I'm coming with you."

"N-no I don't. And you're not coming with us," he said stubbornly. 'Why do you think that?"

"I could give you one thousand and one reasons," she smiled, repeating his words, "but let's think of it this way. Either you swallow your pride and take me with you to wherever it is you're going, or I'm gone," she told him.

"What?" He sounded shocked.

"I'm not going to sit around here waiting for you, Harry," She told him. "I've been doing that for over five years. I'm not going to sit back like a child and do nothing until you get back from your big adventure to be the girl that you left behind waiting for you."

He looked at her funnily. "Don't give me ultimatums like that," he said quietly after a pause.

"You've already made your choice, you just don't realise it," She said, flipping her hair over her shoulder and edging towards him. "You need me and I'm coming with you."

He examined her for a moment, eyes glazing over for a second before a harsh look came over his face.

"I don't need you," He stated, and he stormed into the Burrow, slamming the door behind him.

She stood there stalely for a moment. He had called her bluff. He had walked away, thinking his stubbornness and cave-man attitude had won. And if that was the case, she wasn't going to let it be a bluff. She'd given up on him before, she could do it again.

* * *

Up in Ron's room, Harry had gotten changed in a temper, and was now throwing his belongings haphazardly into his trunk angrily. He finished shoving his belongings into his trunk, and begun pacing furiously around Ron's room, wondering where he was. His bed looked like it hadn't been slept in.

After five minutes or so of pacing stormily, Ron and Hermione walked in wearing their robes from last night, looking at Harry curiously.

"Good, you're here," he snapped. His eyes glanced over their clasped hands and he smirked. "Hurry up and pack, we need to leave."

"Well, I would go pack but I can't get to my stuff because Ginny is storming around her room in a temper worse than yours," Hermione explained, looking at him concerned.

"You two had a fight last night?" Ron asked.

"Er, yeah, we've had a bit of a row, I s'pose," Harry said shortly, pulling Ron's trunk out from under his bed. "Now pack, we need to leave."

"That bad?" Hermione asked him curiously. He scowled.

"Just go pack," He told her irritably.

"I'll go talk to Ginny," Hermione said, leaving Ron's room.

"You two seemed to be getting along alright last night though," Ron stated, pulling his trunk towards him and began to throw his clothes into it.

"And you and Hermione seem to getting on fantastically," Harry simpered at him. "So you keep your mouth shut."

* * *

"He is so bloody stubborn!" Ginny exclaimed as she watched Hermione fold her shirts into her trunk. "I've got six older brothers to treat me like I'm a baby, why does he feel the need to protect me too?"

"I call it his 'saving people thing'," Hermione told her, rolling her eyes. "It's not just you he does it to."

"But can't he see that I can look after myself?" She mumbled crossly.

"No," Hermione said. "Don't worry though Gin, he'll come around."

"If he does, he better well get down on his hands and knees and beg for my forgiveness," she told her. "I'm not going to sit around waiting for him; I've already done that long enough! And after all the stuff he was saying before our row, he better well come apologise!"

"What stuff he was saying?" Hermione asked her with a smirk. Ginny reddened. "What happened last night, because it's pretty obvious that you only fought this morning."

"Well," Ginny deliberated, "Do you want the full story or the brother friendly story?"

* * *

The trio wandered down to the kitchen some time later, levitating their trunks. Ginny was sitting between her parents, and Fred and George were resting their heads in their arms groaning, obviously hung-over. She looked up at Harry expectantly. He turned away, sitting down at the table as far away from her as he could.

"It was such a beautiful wedding," Mrs Weasley swooned as Hermione sat down. Ron paused at where the twins were sitting. He clapped his hands between their heads. They squawked in pain the loud noise inflicted to their headaches, and Ron ran to sit by Harry.

"We'll get you for that one day," Fred said angrily to his brother, looking up blearily.

"Are you lot leaving now?" George asked the trio.

"Yeah," Harry said. "Us three are leaving now." He looked pointedly at Ginny, who glared at him.

"It's so sad," Mrs Weasley said, pulling Hermione into a hug. "Promise that you will be around."

"We should be, Mum," Ron said, hugging his mother.

"You look after them," Mrs Weasley told Harry. He laughed sourly.

"These two can look after themselves," he replied. Ginny shot him another glare, and he replied by giving her a sad smile.

"I'll see you guys around," Ginny said to Ron and Hermione, pulling them into a group hug. Harry pulled away from her mother as she broke her hug with Ron and Hermione.

He caught her eye. Instead of a repeat of the previous glares, she looked at him emotionlessly. He made to say something to her, but his voice wouldn't come out, not this time anyway. She turned her back and slowly walked away from him.

She didn't realise that was the last time she would see him for four years.


	3. News

**Fix You**

* * *

A/N: Thanks so much for the reviews people! It means a lot and inspires me to stay up in those early hours of the morning scribbling into a notebook! Please review if you like it, even if it is just an 'update soon', they all mean a lot! 

**Chapter Three – News**

* * *

Daily Prophet, August 19th, 1997 

_**BOARD REACHES DECISION… HOGWARTS TO CLOSE**_

_A decision was made yesterday deciding the fate of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, a decision of closure. This has been imminent since the shock murder of Headmaster Albus Dumbledore at the wand of Death Eater Severus Snape._

"_We shall reopen after the war," replacement Headmistress Minerva McGonagall commented. "At current time it is just too dangerous for both teachers and students."_

_The Boards decision was 9-3._

_Flourish and Blotts Bookshop in Diagon Alley is in a frenzy, selling more do-it-yourself OWL level instruction books than they can stock. Other arrangements have been made for students who have achieved OWL level studies. Many career paths have made NEWT level unnecessary in these times of war, so students can continue towards a profession, making extended on the job training programs for these people. This includes many high-level jobs, including Aurors, Healers and many Ministry of Magic apprenticeship positions._

_For a full list of available professions and information on applying for one of these positions, see page 6._

* * *

Daily Prophet expose, January 23rd, 1998. 

_**Exposed: Secret Lifestyle of Young Party Witch and Wizards.**_

_A new shock lifestyle has griped England's youth._

_Witches and Wizards as young as fifteen and ranging to their early thirties have embraced a new social pattern, unprecedented for war times. Wild behaviour, underage magic, excessive drinking and consorting with strangers in wild parties with overloud music most certainly is not the smartest or safest thing to do in these dangerous times, yet it is happening all over the country in secret. This reporter managed to find one, and unbeknownst to the recipients, interviewed several about this shock trend during He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's second reign of terror. _

"_What's the point being alive if you're not living?" A Bertie Bott's employee questions. "If we start hiding away, he's already won!" Her statement causes a cheer around the room._

_Several ex-Hogwarts students frequent here after the famous school's closure after Headmaster Albus Dumbledore's shock death. I ask one obviously younger party goer what year she should be in. Seventh, she tells me. The Chosen One, Harry Potter's year._

"_Harry's a nice guy," she tells me with familiarity to The Boy Who Lived. "He's quiet, but outspoken at the same time." She tells me. _

_I ask her if there are any other of Potter's school friends around, if she was close to him at school, and the question on everyone's lips: where is our hero?_

"_I did the Yule Ball with Harry, and I shared a dorm with Harry's best friend, Hermione Granger," she informs, "and my best friend, who is around here somewhere, was dating his other best friend, Ron Weasley, for a couple of months last year._

"_There's a heap of people who know Harry relatively well at these things, but none of us know where he is." I ask her what she would say if he saw his old school mates potentially putting themselves in danger at these parties._

'_Danger?" She scoffs, "We're just having a bit of fun!"_

_While everyone seems to know each other at these parties, but as a newcomer, I am welcomed into the fold as if I was an old friend. This is the alarming part, the lack of caution. For all these people know, I could be a masquerading Death Eater, on a mission to get information, take someone hostage, or just begin a riot and cause many deaths._

"_How does everyone know each other?" A ask a wizard of around thirty._

"_We don't," He replies simply, asking me to dance. I tell him that these gatherings may attract dark wizard attention._

"_Why would they care? We're just minding our own business."_

_Obviously oblivious to the danger they are placing themselves in, the party witch and wizards (who revere in their name) see no harm from their behaviour. As tomorrow's leaders of our society, they are not only putting themselves, but our future in danger. Their carelessness may just be their downfall._

* * *

Daily Prophet column, December 10th, 2000 

_**Hunting Harry**_

_On the third anniversary of this column, this week just have to be patient and keep asking the same question we have been asking for the past three years: where are you, Harry Potter?  
_

_Since the closure of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry over three years ago, Potter's whereabouts have been unknown._

_Despite many unconfirmed sighting, the Chosen One has not been seen since late August 1997, where there were several photographs taken of Potter traipsing through Diagon Alley. He was seen there with also missing-in-action best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. They made several stops that day, including Gringotts Bank (where Potter reportedly withdrew a ridiculously large amount of gold), and Weasley's older brothers joke shop, the infamous Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes._

_Potters disappearance since that day has prompted many speculations, including that they Boy Who Lived lives no longer. However, this seems highly improbable. With his only real opponent defeated, He Who Must Not Be Named would have a tighter stranglehold over our community then he does at present time. This causes many to believe that Mr Potter is out there somewhere, waging his own silent battle against the Dark Lord._

_So with just over two weeks until Christmas, we ask for a present. Give us a sign, Harry. Let us see that you are still around; give us some hope._

* * *

Daily Prophet column, 24th December 2000 

_**Hunting Harry**_

_Thankyou. _

_The mysterious Mr Potter is alive and well. No longer the scrawny boy we all remember fondly, a 20 year old man with broad shoulders and shaggy black hair was seen doing some Christmas shopping in Diagon Alley yesterday. Despite the physical differences, it was still the same old Harry Potter._

_Seen with sidekicks Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, the three paused for a brief moment outside of Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions after visiting Gringotts Bank, where Potter once again withdrew an obscenely large amount of gold. After posing for a small handful of press photographs, Potter made a brief comment to Daily Prophet photographer, Darren Bobbins._

"_Say Merry Christmas to the people who do Hunting Harry for me will you? I really enjoy reading about what I'm doing every week."_

_Merry Christmas to you too, Mr Potter. You are as enigmatic as ever._

* * *

Daily Prophet, November 1st, 2001 

_**IT'S OVER**_

_Harry Potter defeats Dark Lord._

_At approximately 7:12 last night, He Who Must Not Be Named's second bout of terror was ended by our Chosen One, The Boy Who Lived (twice!) Harry Potter._

_Our saviour has been absent from everything for the best part of the past four years. His presence has been felt amongst our community however, the Albus Dumbledore founded Order of the Phoenix maintaining the fight against the Dark Lord's Death Eaters in Potter's absence._

_The vicious battle occurred at our saviour's boyhood home in Godrics Hollow. Ironically, the Dark Lord's demise came twenty years after his first downfall at Potter's hands. In a second twist of irony, it occurred at the same place as where You Know Who murdered Potter's parents, Lily and James Potter, and where he fell to Mr Potter whilst he was still in nappies._

_As the place swarmed with Aurors, reporters and captured Death Eaters, a barely conscious Potter was escorted for the scene by his now famous best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger (joint winners of Witch Weekly's 'World's Best Sidekicks' competition). Also accompanying them were Head of Magical Law Enforcement and Weasley's father, Arthur Weasley, ex-Hogwarts professor and known werewolf Remus Lupin and Auror Nymphadora Tonks. They headed to St Mungo's Hospital where Potter resides in a private room under constant Auror supervision and with designated Healers under contract not to reveal that he is even a patient._

_The capture of several infamous Death Eaters was confirmed by the Ministry of Magic after last nights events. Some of the notable amongst the captures include Severus Snape, Bellatrix Lestrange, Lucius Malfoy, Peter Pettigrew and several others from the two Azkaban Prison breakouts in the past six years. Pettigrew has been believed to be dead for the last twenty years, and upon his capture, Minster for Magic Rufus Scrimgeour released an official statement clearing the late Sirius Black; Harry Potter's godfather from the charges for which he was imprisoned for for twelve years. All Death Eaters have been taken to Azkaban awaiting trial._

_While this is a day of celebration, we must stop to briefly remember the great witches and wizards who have passed in the horrors of You Know Who's reign. Among the many, this includes Dumbledore, Amelia Bones, Alastor Moody, Cornelius Fudge, Barty Crouch, Black, Emmeline Vance, Ludo Bagman, Horace Slughorn and many more._

_A full report of Minister Scrimgeour and his undersecretary Dolores Umbridge's released statement on pages 3-5_

_Statement from Hogwarts Headmistress and board of governors, page 6-7_

_Unofficial statement of Harry Potter's injuries, page 8_

_Exclusive interview with Harry Potter about the Dark Lord's rebirth seven years ago, page 9-11_

_Full list of captured Death Eaters, page 12-15_

* * *

A/N: Reviews?? 


	4. A Strength and a Weakness

**Fix You**

A/N: Um, yes, that was meant to go quick. The story isn't about the war; it's a romance in the strictest sense of the word. It's all in the aftermath, though this is a chapter compiled of two flashbacks. These are Harry and Ginny's (almost) interactions through the war. If you are slightly shocked by the end of this chapter, just remind yourself what the title is, things aren't meant to go smoothly!

At the moment, writing is very easy for me… The hard part is turning it from paper to print. I'm in the process of writing chapter seven at the moment, so the only issue for posting is my laziness when it comes to transferring from paper to a word document. Currently, I love where this is going. Hope that this length is enjoyable. I'm aiming for around three thousand words a chapter and this is five.

Myspace people??? Add me, link is as my homepage up in that author thing

* * *

**Chapter Four – A Strength and a Weakness**

December 25th, 2000

"I had a feeling we'd be seeing you three!" A teary Mrs Weasley said, pulling Ron, Hermione and Harry into a bone crunching hug.

It was snowing lightly with a glary sunlight on the Burrow. They had been planning an appearance for a few months, but had decided on Christmas on Ron's suggestion. They had visited Hermione's parents the day before, and had spent the one prior at Diagon Alley.

"Oh, you all look so peaky," Mrs. Weasley exclaimed. "Come in, we're about to start lunch!" She ushered them into the crowded kitchen.

The majority of the Weasley's, Lupin, Tonks and Moody sat around the kitchen table; plates of untouched food in front of each of them. They had been expected, three empty places sat between the twins. Mrs. Weasley ushered them into these empty seats fondly. Sitting between Ron and Hermione, Harry scanned the redheads of the table quickly. Bill, both Weasley parents, the twins, and now Ron. Ginny was noticeably absent.

"Can we start eating now they're here, Mum?" Fred asked. Laughter rang across the table.

"Yes, yes, eat Fred," Mrs. Weasley said, dabbing her eyes with her napkin.

"Just because we haven't seen them for the past three years," Fred began.

"Without a floo call," George added.

"Or an owl,"

"Or even a brief pop in so we know you lot are still alive,"

"Doesn't mean they should prevent us from eating," George finished. "They're only hear for a square meal anyway,"

"We did visit!" Ron objected through a mouthful of peas. "Two days ago, we came to your shop, but you weren't there!"

They ate in silence before Ron broke it.

"Hey…where's Ginny?" He asked the table at large.

"Oh, she got called in to work last minute yesterday," Mr Weasley said. Harry looked down into his broccoli determinately.

"It didn't seem to bother her that much though," He went on. "I thought she would have been glad to see you three. We all knew you were coming."

Harry felt his face redden, but only his potatoes could see. It was his fault she had to work over Christmas. She was avoiding him because of the row they had had before he had left. He thought of why they had fought, of the night of Bill and Fleur's wedding and flushed further as Hermione nudged him under the table. He felt Lupin's eyes boring into the back of his head.

"Wait," Ron said, confused. "A couple of steps back here. Ginny has a job?"

"What did you expect Ron, your sister to just sit around here doing nothing?" Hermione asked him, looking at his over Harry's head as he blushed further, with a twang of guilt accompanying it. "What is she doing?"

"Healing," Tonks supplied. "I was thinking of becoming a healer once. Glad I didn't though. Unfortunately, Healers need patience, while Aurors need-"

"CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" Moody barked. Harry jumped, choking on his food and causing himself to stab his nose with his fork. Even Mrs Weasley laughed at him. He scowled and rubbed his nose as he sipped his wine.

"You alright mate?" Ron asked as Harry's eyes streamed. He nodded, at least it was something he could blame his reddened face on.

"Don't die on us now, oh great Chosen One," George mocked.

"This week's _Hunting Harry_," Fred said. "Our saviour loses his nose to tragic accident with fork!"

"Where have you lot been, anyway?" George asked ever so casually.

"Well, we visited my parents yesterday," Hermione explained.

"Where else?" Fred demanded.

"Ask no questions, get no lies," Harry piped in, speaking for the first time since they had arrived.

"I said that once!" Fred exclaimed. "Like five years ago or something! How on earth can you remember that?" Harry shrugged.

"What's happened to you three?" George asked in amazement. "Normally it's Hermione's job to quote people, and Ron's to embarrass himself while eating!"

They fell into a comfortable silence.

Bill cleared his throat. "Well, in other news, I had a kid, Ron, look!" He brandished a small boy with copper hair in his face.

"What? Since when?" Ron looked amazed.

"Robbie eez three een March." Fleur said happily, ruffling the young boy's hair.

"So he was born six months after we left?" Ron asked conversationally. Everyone but Mrs Weasley, Bill, Fleur, Ron and Lupin snorted into their food.

"It's not funny, Arthur!" Mrs Weasley berated her husband.

"Why is it funny?" Ron asked, looking around the table. The twins shook their heads as Harry whispered something behind his hand to Ron.

"Oh-ho!" Ron exclaimed, "Bill!"

"'Ee waz premature," Fleur huffed.

"Sure," a twin muttered under his breath.

"Don't worry Fleur," Lupin said, scooping his potatoes. "I know for a fact that Harry was conceived on my couch six weeks before Lily and James got married."

Mortified, Harry pushed his food away from him. "And there goes my appetite."

"I still have that couch," Lupin said. "It's in my study." Tonks' face paled.

"I read on that couch!"

"Well, that's why it has those plastic covers on it."

"Meanwhile, back to Christmas," Harry said and everyone fell into a comfortable silence.

"How long are you three staying?" Bill asked them over plum pudding.

"We're not," Hermione said sadly. "Strict timeline." Mrs Weasley's face fell.

"Surely you can stay tonight, everyone is," She said. "Ginny will be wanting to see you three. You can leave as early as you want tomorrow morning."

"What time will Ginny be home?" Ron asked.

"Oh, probably a little past ten. I'm making her spend all of tomorrow with me."

"Do we have enough time, Harry?" Hermione asked him, her eyes twinkling at him as he felt Lupin studying him intently again.

"We have to leave really early," Harry said bleakly.

"I'll go set up your beds." Mrs Weasley bustled upstairs.

* * *

Later that night in the sitting room, as Mrs Weasley and Fleur sung mightily to Celestina Warbeck and Ron acquainted himself with his nephew; Harry and Hermione played chess as Lupin, Tonks, Moody and the remaining Weasley's sat on the couches, chatting merrily. 

'Can you say Uncle Ron?" Ron asked, sitting next to the toddler. "Uncle Ron."

Bill nodded encouragingly at his son, who looked apprehensive.

"Unca Non," He exclaimed, and he hit Ron in the face before waddling over to his father, hiding behind him.

"Unca Non," Harry scoffed quietly as he took Hermione's castle.

"I think it's cute," Hermione replied, frowning down at the board.

"You would," Harry teased in a half whisper. "I'd put money on you becoming Aunta Mione in the next couple of years."

"Ooh, if Ginny were here, I'd be giving it to you so bad at the moment," She muttered pinkly, prodding a quivering pawn forward.

"But she's not, so I can tease you as much as I want," He smirked, taking the pawn. "Speaking of Ginny, what's the time?"

"Quarter past nine, why?" Hermione took his troublesome knight happily.

"At nine-thirty I'll go to put my pieces away," Harry breathed. "If anyone asks, I've had a cold all week and I need the rest."

"You git, you're avoiding her, aren't you?"

"C'mon Hermione, it's more like she's avoiding me," His bishop checked her king. "We both know the only reason that she worked today is because she knew I was coming."

"Still…" They played in silence until Lupin came over, looking down on the game in interest.

"How are you two holding up?" He asked as Harry's queen chased off a wayward pawn as Fred ran into the Christmas tree on the other side of the room.

"Good thanks, how are you and Tonks?" Harry asked in reply, looking over to Tonks who was in a discussion with Moody over Auror training. "I see there are no multicoloured wolf cubs running around." Hermione laughed as Lupin rolled his eyes.

"You sound like Sirius," he told Harry, who smiled sadly at the thought of his godfather.

"You still miss him a lot, don't you?" Hermione asked as she made a move towards Harry's king. He met her eyes over the board.

"I'm always going to miss him," he told her gruffly. "You know that."

"You never do really get over things like that," Lupin said quietly. "Twenty years time, it will still hurt." Hermione looked at him carefully.

"You, you've always seemed so accepting of what's happened though," Hermione said, examining her old professor's face as Harry prodded a convulsing castle. "You've never really let your emotions show. That sort of strength is really quite admirable, holding on through the worst." Lupin shook his head sadly.

"When Sirius died, I'd already done my grieving," he told them. "In one night twenty years ago, all my closest friends died. In one way or another, they were all gone."

Harry looked up at his old teacher in a mixture of shock, pity and familiarity. It was yet another example of how Voldemort tore people's lives apart. Sure, his lungs may have breathed, his heart may have pumped blood, but Harry saw it in his face. In what should have been some of the best years of his life, Remus Lupin had been a shell. Existing for the sake of existing; his best friends, his only friends in the world either dead or incarcerated for betraying the others to their death or killing them. Of course, things were not the way they had seemed then, but he was a man left alone with only his thoughts and a shadow of a life for too many years. Harry looked up at him, and was unsurprised to find him not upset. A grim smile was flittering on his aging face.

"The two years with Sirius after his escape was like a bonus to me, Harry," Lupin told him. "A treat of sorts, to put it crudely."

He smiled down on a shell-shocked Harry. "I had spent over a decade wallowing. I lost everything that had ever meant anything to me so quickly, and to get some of what I had back was just joy. You have to cling to what you do have as tightly as you can while you still have the chance." Lupin looked at Tonks fondly as Harry shifted his knight numbly.

"There are always memories, I guess," Harry said to Lupin. "The string's always there." Hermione groaned audibly.

"Not that stupid string thing!" Hermione exclaimed, moving her queen into the line of fire.

"Did you just say string, Harry?" Ron asked from across the room warily.

"He did," Hermione told him, shaking her head. "Please don't continue."

"What's this string thing?" Lupin asked curiously.

"Oh, I just have this theory that when we meet someone we connect by a piece of string, and then we can always trace some part of ourself back to that person," Harry said quickly. Lupin looked gob smacked. "It's not very important," He added as Hermione looked for a move to salvage the game.

"But anyway," Lupin said quietly after a moment, lowering his voice conspiringly. "What about you Harry?"

"What about me?" Harry asked as his castle cornered Hermione's king.

"Would I be correct in suggesting that maybe you sometimes have very unplatonic thoughts about a certain Miss Weasley?" Lupin looked at Harry smugly.

"Keep it down a bit," Harry muttered, turning red.

"You're wrong though, Remus," Hermione told him. "You said sometimes… I would put it as an always. It's rather annoyingly cute actually."

"I thought we had a silent agreement," Harry told Hermione as he checkmated her. "We don't talk about that. What's the time?"

"Quarter to ten, but don't you even-"

"I'm going to put my pieces away," Harry announced, standing up stretching and gathering his pieces and grinning at Hermione gleefully. "I'll see you around," He added to Lupin as he fled to Ron's room. Hermione clicked her tongue after him.

* * *

"Merry Christmas everyone," Ginny called happily as she entered the sitting room twenty minutes later. "I've never really realised how well we get along as a family. There were so many injuries today caused by someone's brother or the uncle they don't like." She kissed her mother on the cheek and seized her little nephew as he ran into his aunt's legs. She scanned the room quickly. Ron and Hermione were there, but the black mop of hair that she had began to despise so much was thankfully absent. 

"Hi, Hermione," Ginny said as she descended on her.

"Oh, I've missed you!" Hermione squealed as she hugged her.

"Yeah, I bet you have. Thanks for writing," Ginny smirked sarcastically. "It was so good to hear from you."

"I'm so sorry!" Hermione said as Ron hugged his sister. "Harry said that we could only owl in emergencies."

"So he keeps you on a leash now, does he?" She asked, eyebrows raised as kissed her father's cheek a Merry Christmas.

"Where did he go anyway?" Ron asked, looking around for Harry.

"He went to put his chess pieces away," Hermione explained in a monotone. "He's probably asleep. He's had a cold all week and needs the rest." She shot Ron a meaningful glance.

"Oh yeah, he's had a bit of a head cold," Ron said upon Hermione's prompting. Lupin smiled and shook his head to himself hopelessly.

"So, Ginny," Ron said, crawling across the floor and sitting next to Ginny, who was leaning against the wall opposite everyone. "What have you been up to recently?"

"I take it you mean in the past three years."

"Yeah."

"Well," She began. "Not much really. I'm sure whatever it is you're doing is a lot more interesting."

"Mum said you're a healer."

"Healer in training," she explained. "I'm not a full healer for another half year still."

"Okay," Ron said. "So you like healing?"

"Yeah," Ginny shrugged.

Ron examined his little sister for a moment. "So what else have you been up to?"

"What do you think I do?" Ginny asked exasperatedly. "I'm nineteen, I have a little flat in London, I work at St Mungo's, I go out with friends. It's pretty normal, and not very interesting. I enjoy it though."

"Oh," Ron said dumbfounded, shocked by the change in his sister. "It just seems so weird. You're my little sister, but you're a healer and you're all grown up, and living in London, it's just really weird."

"I'm not a baby Ron; I can look after myself believe it or not," She told him huffily. "I'm not the eleven year old kid who needs saving anymore."

"I know," He said, looking at her in a very un-Ronlike way. She was shocked.

"I think Hermione's finally having an influence on you," Ginny told her brother. "Being accepting and not trying to interfere. Also being slightly considerate of my feelings, definitely some of Hermione's best work. Three years ago you would have called me a baby and would tell me that I can't look after myself."

Ron murmured a laugh. "Things change, so do opinions."

"Or you've just began to listen to Hermione more. How long are you staying?"

"We're leaving early tomorrow."

"Thank Merlin," Ginny whispered.

"You and Harry had a big fight, didn't you?" He asked quietly, eyebrows raised.

"You could say that. I would call it a huge fight. It doesn't matter though." She sighed. "But anyway…"

It was then that Ron realised something. Harry really had hurt his little sister. He didn't know what they had fought about, and didn't really want to. Hermione had just said that both of them were just being stupid. Not knowing what to think, they sat in silence for a moment.

"So, any potential male healers need threatening from your favourite older brother?"

She laughed. "No. A few female ones may though." Seeing Ron's jaw drop open and his eyes popped out, she quickly continued. "Kidding, Ron, I'm just kidding. Jokey joke, ha ha."

"Oh," was all Ron could say, looking relieved.

* * *

"So," Ginny said to Hermione later that night in her room as they sat in their beds, moonlight streaming through the window. 

"So what?" Hermione said in mock innocence.

"Tell me everything!" Ginny demanded. "Where have you been in the past years, tell me how for some reason you are madly in love with Ron, and tell me about the Horcruxes." She added the last in a whisper. Hermione fixed her with a beady stare through the darkness.

"I shouldn't have told you about them," Hermione muttered.

"Well, you did," Ginny replied in a breathy whisper. "So let's start with, um, what are your intentions for Ron?"

"Get comfortable, I guess we are going to be a while."

* * *

"So that's everything?" Ginny asked many hours later as the sun was peeping over the horizon. 

"I think so," Hermione yawned. "What's the time?"

"Early," she told her.

"Should just stay up the whole night," Hermione groaned wearily. "But anyway, tell me more about what you've been up to." Ginny opened her mouth to speak. "But don't tell me about Healing," Hermione cut across. "I've read about that. Tell me something exciting."

"I'm not very exciting," Ginny squirmed.

"Sure you are," Hermione said. "Tell me about your social life or something."

"Well," Ginny said, thinking about how only Hermione could say that without it sounding overly awkward. "Padma Patil did the same Healing course as me, so we became good friends. I go out with her, Parvati and Lavender a bit."

"Does she ask about Won-Won?" Hermione asked sullenly. Ginny laughed and shook her head.

"Do you still worry about that?" Ginny asked laughing. "You two have been half married looking after your baby Harry for the past three years, and you are worrying about Lavender?"

"Hang on," Hermione changed the topic. "If you're handing around with them, you must be one of those drunken teen party witches that the _Prophet_ is always rabbiting on about! Ginny, I didn't know you were throwing away your own and England's future!" Her tone was teasing, but Ginny scowled.

"The _Prophet_ prints rubbish, you know that," She said irritably. "Speaking of printing rubbish, I ran into Luna the other day. She's working for her dad at _The Quibbler_, and-"

"Shh," Hermione said quickly. "Someone's coming." They both scrambled into their beds as if they were thirteen year olds whose parents were coming to check on them.

"Hermione?" They heard Harry's voice ask apprehensively on the landing as he knocked softly on the door. Ginny waved to catch Hermione's attention. She pointed to herself, then held her hands to her head motioning sleeping. Hermione suppressed a laugh as Ginny climbed into bed and feigned sleep.

"Coming," Hermione said, opening the door. Harry was standing there, looking uneasy.

"Did I wake you?" He asked quickly, peering into the room. Ginny's hair was the only part of her visible.

"No, I was up already," Hermione said, smirking at him. "Are we going now?"

"Yeah," Harry said, not looking at her.

"I'm over here Harry, or are you not talking to me?" She smirked again. He blushed.

"Have you packed up your stuff?" Harry asked her.

"Nearly finished," Hermione said. "Stop looking at her." He blushed again.

"I don't want to."

"You know, we could have taken her with us."

"No, we couldn't have," Harry said huffily. "She was underage, at incredible risk, and besides, imagine what Mrs Weasley would have said."

Hermione laughed. "Point." Harry sighed, still looking at Ginny.

"You really love her, don't you?" It was a rhetorical question.

"Pack, Hermione," Harry said tiredly. "Just pack so we can kill Voldemort. Then we can come back and I can try to make things right."

* * *

October 31st, 2001 

"So just stay off that leg for a bit, Mrs Callahan," Ginny told a frail old woman, pushing her wheelchair through the corridors of St Mungo's to the entrance.

"Thank you deary, you've been a great help," Mrs Callahan told her. "Last time I buy my grandsons presents from Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes let me tell you."

Ginny laughed, but it didn't quite reach her eyes. "My brothers own that shop."

"Really?" The woman asked her.

"Couldn't you tell by the hair?"

"I didn't realise deary, but I guess it's just such a small world," the woman said as Ginny pushed her into the semi-full foyer. "Does that mean-" She began to add curiously.

"Yes, Ron is my brother. And yes, I also know Harry and Hermione." She told the shocked old woman. "Don't worry, I get asked a lot."

"You're nearly famous then, aren't you?" She said.

"Not really," Ginny smiled. "Is that your son?" She added as an anxious man rushed over.

"Yes, that's Bobby," She smiled fondly. "Now if only he had married a nice girl like you instead of that witch…"

"Hi, Mum," The man said guiltily. "Thanks," He added to Ginny.

"I'll see you around Mrs Callahan," Ginny laughed.

He side-along Apparated her away and as Ginny made to check up on other patients, a loud pop signalled the arrival of a large, dirty group. Thinking that another Healer would pick them up, Ginny only turned around when she heard her name being called.

"Ginny!" She turned as a battered Hermione with rabid hair got in her face.

"Hi Hermione, thanks for writing again," she said in sarcastic impatience. "Thanks for stopping by, but I have patients." She turned to leave again.

"Ginny," Hermione demanded again, tugging on her arm towards the group. Her father and Tonks were flanking Harry carefully. He was being held upright by Ron and Lupin, his head lolling dangerously.

'Shit," Ginny said quietly, searching the pocket of her robes for a little device and fishing it out. It was silver, and as longs a matchbox, around as thick as a wand. It had buttons on each end, one red, one green. Ginny pressed the green one. "Ginny Weasley for Healer Frolintine," she spoke to it clearly. After a second, it spat out a reply.

"What is it Weasley?" The tired voice of Ginny's boss said.

"Emergency patient, ground floor," She said while pressing the red button.

"Hi, Gin," a loopy Harry said, looking at her. His face was dirty, his hair matted with blood and his glasses were cracked. He fell towards her, but Ron and Lupin tightened their grip and heaved him up. "Howaa yoou?" His face broke into a grin, green eyes gleaming.

"I'm in the middle of Mr Johnson's procedure," the voice through the little stick grumbled. "Patient's name and status."

"Patient is one Potter, Harry, currently-"

"Get a chair, Weasley," A stern looking man said, announcing his arrival with a crack. Harry slipped again, as Ginny summoned a wheelchair to underneath him. Lupin and Ron lowered him into it slowly as two more healers arrived.

"What happened?" One asked, peering at Harry, mildly star struck.

"I killed him," Harry said happily. His head lolled back to see Ginny, who was standing behind him. "I killed him Gin. Dead!" He looked at her in delirious curiosity. "It's over, things are better now." Only she realised this was intended as a question.

"Weasley, Davids, with me and Potter to room 84," The stern Healer Frolintine demanded. " Ericsson, see to these five."

"No," Ginny said loudly. "I'll stay with them, they're family." Harry frowned sadly up at her as a Healer pushed his wheelchair away. The boss took one look at Ron and Mr Weasley's hair before nodding curtly.

"Use exam room 12, then bring them up to 84."

"Are you lot okay?" Ginny asked as she led them down a gleaming corridor and into a spacious white room with three beds.

"Ron's not," Hermione piped in quickly. Indeed, Ron was shuffiling slowly and his shirt had blood soaking through.

"I'm fine Ginny bean," Mr Weasley said. "I turned up just after it was over. Remus and Hermione have a few bumps and bruises, but Ron and Tonks need some looking at."

"Sit, everyone," Ginny instructed. The sat, looking odd in the room, filthy in contrast to the sparkling room.

"I have to go," Her father said to Ginny. "You're mother will be anxious, then I have to go to the Ministry."

"Anxious is an understatement," Ginny said to her father. "I'll be by the Burrow once I've finished work." He nodded, then Apparated. "Let's look at you Ron." He sat on one of the beds.

"This is surreal," Hermione said, shaking her head as if she had water stuck in her ears. She glanced around the room in shock "This is so weird."

"It's just a room, Hermione," Ginny pointed out.

"It's not that," Hermione scoffed. "It's just… it's over. It's done."

"We're going to have to get jobs and stuff," Ron winced as Ginny pulled up his shirt and squirted water out of her wand and onto his wound. They sat in a shocked silence.

* * *

Half and hour later, Ginny lead the anxious group through the St Mungo's corridors towards room 84. She had repositioned Ron's broken rib and had given him a dozen potions to take and he was waddling slowly, but he had wanted to see Harry. Ginny had given Tonks dislocated shoulder a quick look over and had given Hermione and Remus some basic healing potions. 

"Where are we going?" Tonks asked, her arm in a sling to protect her shoulder. "The VIP room?"

"Yeah," Ginny said. "Room 84. It has a mini-bar."

"Is he going to be okay?" Remus asked after a pause.

"Worse have been," Ginny said detachedly. "But better haven't. Is the head wound magical?"

"No," Ron said. "He slipped."

"What's wrong with him?" Hermione asked in a little voice.

"Probably nothing," Ginny said to their shocked faces. "They'll heal his head wound, and maybe give him some blood replenishing potion."

"Why was he all off though?" Ron asked his sister.

"Delirium caused by exhaustion, I would say," Ginny said. "It's not uncommon. We're here, anyway." She pulled out the contraption, and held it against a blank patch of wall, quickly pressing a button sequence. Red red green, red green green. A door appeared, and Ginny opened it to let them in. Harry was sleeping in a bed, surrounded by healers.

"He's okay," One said to the relieved group. 'Fixed up the injury to his head no problems, and it just seemed like he was delirious from exhaustion." He added, proving Ginny right. "We're running a few tests just in case."

"Fantastic," Ron said, sitting down on a chair near Harry's bed. "Now where is this mini-bar?" He looked around the lavish room expectantly.

Glancing at his sleeping form, Ginny could only feel an intense hatred for Harry. It didn't matter that he had just saved the world. It didn't matter that she cared for him above all others; and she knew that she did deep down. He didn't need her, and he had made sure she had known, trampling her heart in the process. He didn't really care for her either, despite what he may have thought. If he had, he wouldn't have set out to hurt her. When he left, it had almost killed her inside, but she had stayed strong. She hadn't even cried. She had became quite good at hiding her feelings for him from everyone, even from herself. She didn't want to like him, so she didn't have to. Easy as that. But now it was over, she knew that he would want her back.

Could she accept that? She knew she would always have a soft spot for him; there was no way to deny it. On the other hand, it had become so easy to hate him. There was no way he could hurt her again if she kept him at arms distance. The walls she had always placed around herself had just gotten bigger when he had left. She couldn't break them down for him again. That would be weakness. She had said she wouldn't wait around, why take back her words now?

Harry would never be able to care for her the way she wanted him to. He would never need her. And she, Ginny deserved to be needed. By someone, by anyone. With a sense of empowerment, she knew what she had to do. She had done the same thing every time she began to feel low, every time she had began to find it in her heart to let it be in the past four years. She had to remind herself, she needed to be needed. She would find someone, and they would need her. Preferably only for a night, she knew that this would pass by morning and to make it last longer to that would be unfair. She made to leave the room, to leave her emotions and head to a party to find her comfort. She couldn't leave, Hermione had grasped her arm.

"Stay," She told Ginny. "He loves you, and you love him. C'mon, bury the hatchet."

Ginny looked at her through scared eyes.

"I can't."


	5. What's Right From Wrong

**Fix You**

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A/N: Thanks to everyone for the reviews! They mean a lot, and I will respond if you say something that I feel the need to respond to. If you ask something and I don't respond, they answer is quite simple: you'll see. I've responded to reviews for some past stories, but in the end I ended up spending more time giving everyone a good response then I did actually writing. Oh, and everyone stop picking on Harry! He's wasn't a pig purposely, despite what it may seem. It will come to light a bit in this chapter, and a lot more in the next one. 

I don't normally dedicate chapters, but this is to **merliedog** because that review you left was definitely worth it.

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**What's Right from Wrong**

2 months later…

December 25th, 2001

"Well, this has been a rather productive year," Hermione said, looking around the table.

Much like the year before, the Burrow was full of people enjoying Christmas lunch. Mr and Mrs Weasley, Remus Lupin, Tonks, Charlie and his girlfriend Rebecca, Fred, George, Ginny, Harry, Ron, Hermione and her parents Frank and Jane were all gathered around the Burrow's scrubbed kitchen table. Bill and Fleur had taken Robbie to France for the holidays to visit Fleur's family. Hermione's parents were sitting slightly warily on the edge of their seats. Tonks' hair had frightened them when she had decided that green wasn't going to work and had reverted to her usual bright pink. They had wanted to spend Christmas skying with Hermione, but their daughter had insisted that they join the Weasleys for Christmas, telling them forcefully that there was something that they needed to hear. Sitting between Ron and Lupin, Harry was directly opposite Ginny. He wasn't sure if this was a good or a bad thing. They hadn't said a proper word to each other in the past two months, but this wasn't from Harry's lack of trying. Every time he came near her, she found some excuse to leave. Ron and Hermione had found this slightly amusing, telling Harry that she surely couldn't be mad at him forever and that she would have to talk to him one day. This was first opportunity Harry had really had to talk to her since he was seventeen. Although, he though sourly, the sort of conversation he wanted to have with her was not something he was keen to broadcast over a table of Weasleys.

"It has been rather," Lupin smiled.

After the war, Harry had spent a day in St Mungo's before joining the celebrations with Ron and Hermione, hopping from the Burrow to The Leaky Cauldron and several other thriving wizard parties. They had run into several old school friends from Ernie Macmillan to Colin Creevey to Luna Lovegood who had informed them about the latest Snorkack development. Ginny had also been at several of these places, but she seemed to disappear on their arrival.

The Ministry had publicly hailed Harry, Ron and Hermione heroes after the war and they had all been offered pretty much any job, anywhere they wished. After much deliberation, Hermione had accepted a place at the Department for Ethical Treatment of Magical Creatures in the Ministry, taking SPEW and other causes to a further level on the condition that Remus Lupin was given a job alongside her despite his lycanthropy. They had been there for only a couple of weeks but were already making an impact on the unorganised department.

Ron had had a different idea. Abandoning the goal of becoming and Auror, Ron had joined the Chudley Cannons coaching staff. He was enjoying it and the Cannons had had the fastest growing membership in a month ever.

Harry had bought a flat at the top of an apartment building in London. Ron and Hermione had moved in with him, but were intending to move in together in the imminent future. The flat was mainly one large room that contained the kitchen with a fireplace and living area with four doors, leading to three bedrooms and a bathroom. Harry had claimed the bedroom with the ensuite, siting that he did own the place. After a few appropriate charms, the flat had large vaulted ceilings, and they had even tacked on a little windy balcony that (after a few charms) you could fly off. Hermione had a short walk to Ministry everyday and Ron either flew of Flooed to work.

"Have you got a job yet, Harry?" Lupin asked him conversationally.

"No," Harry said through a mouth of turkey. "I honestly can't be bothered."

"Are you even going to get a job?" George asked him from next to Ginny.

"Maybe one day," Harry told him. "I just can't be bothered yet. I don't really know what I want to do anyway."

"What happened to being an Auror?" Tonks asked him, leaning around Lupin to talk to him. "I'd love to be your superior or something."

Harry murmured a laugh. "Same reason Ron didn't become an Auror," He said. "I've done enough of that already."

"Surely you get bored not working though," Charlie asked. "What do you all day?"

"Get up late, have a shower, eat, read the paper," Harry said. "Then I have to go buy food, and then by that time these two are home and they entertain me. Then I sleep."

"You should come work for us, Harry," Fred told him.

"Why does everyone assume that I even want a job?" Harry asked them. "I'm quite content doing nothing. I don't think that there is a job that I would like to do anyway."

"Quidditch?" Charlie's girlfriend Rebecca proposed. "I hear you're quite a seeker."

"That's hard," Harry said. "I did consider it for a bit, but I know I wouldn't really be taken seriously."

"I'm sure plenty of teams would love to pick you up, Harry," Mr Weasley told him, cleaning his glasses on the sleeve of his robes.

"Yeah, I'm sure plenty of teams would love to recruit me," Harry said simply. "But not because I'm a seeker, because I'm Harry Potter." He scowled to himself.

"Well, what else do you enjoy?" Charlie asked him. "Between us all, I'm sure we could think of a job for you."

"Is there a job that involves yelling?" Ron smirked at his friend.

"Yelling over-impassioned speeches," Hermione corrected her boyfriend.

"Why do you two pick on me so much?" Harry asked, running a hand through his hair in frustration. Lupin smirked from next to him.

"Perhaps politics," Hermione said thoughtfully, ignoring Harry's comment. "You're certainly stubborn enough." Ginny, who had kept out of conversation up to now looked up and glared at Harry. He met her eyes, intimidated; he took a sip from his goblet of wine to hide behind it.

"Anyway," Harry said forcefully to Ron and Hermione. "Off me…"

"No, back on to you," Ron said playfully. "Hermione, start on your favourite of all young Harry's qualities. What is it you call it? His 'saving people thing'?" Ginny glared at Harry angrily again.

"It's evolved beyond that though," Hermione said thoughtfully. "I would call it his 'hero complex' it's gotten that bad."

"Just shut up about me!" Harry exclaimed at them angrily. "How about we all just talk about how you two are getting married instead?"

"You promised you wouldn't say anything!" Ron shouted, punching Harry's arm. Harry smirked as the table exploded. Mrs Weasley jumped up and seized Ron and Hermione into a big great hug, banging their heads together in the process.

"Oh, this is fantastic!" She literally cried as she pulled away to let Mrs Granger hug her daughter as Mr Granger shook Ron's hand enthusiastically.

"What happened to us saying to you 'don't drop any hints, Harry, we want to tell everyone ourselves', hey?" Hermione rounded on him as Ron was kissed on the cheek by his future mother-in-law.

"You seemed too busy picking on me so I thought I would do it for you," Harry said. "Congratulations, by the way."

"I hate you," She said as she squeezed him quickly.

"Mr and Mrs Granger," Fred asked. "By any chance did you drop Hermione on her head as a baby?"

"It's just that it seems that she agreed to marry Ron," George added hastily as they looked shocked. "Ron."

"Does this mean you're kicking them out of the flat, Harry?" Charlie asked as Lupin and Tonks congratulated the happy couple.

"Yep," Harry smiled. "But they were always going to leave soon anyway."

"Ginny," Hermione squealed as Ginny hugged her. Harry glanced up at the two of them momentarily before frowning into his potatoes.

"I'm so happy for you!" Ginny grinned. "I feel sorry for you though," She added in a whisper. "Because now not only do you have to snog him, you may have to shag him too!" She shuddered dramatically.

"Ginny!" Hermione exclaimed as she slapped her arm. "I was going to ask you to be my Maid of Honour, but if you're going to be like that…"

"Oh," Ginny said dumbfounded. "I dunno Hermione…" She glared at Harry, who was chatting with Lupin.

"We are going to talk about this issue later," Hermione said sternly, following Ginny's gaze.

* * *

Vaguely reminiscent of the year before, everyone had gathered in the sitting room that night. Harry and Lupin were explaining the intricacies of Quidditch to the Grangers as Mrs Weasley wailed with Celestina Warbeck. Charlie, Rebecca and Mr Weasley were in a deep conversation with Tonks about war casualties as the twins teased Ron. Ginny and Hermione were sitting in the corner, talking quietly. Harry noticed the glances that kept coming his way and he could easily guess who the topic of that conversation was.

"Of course Harry is Best Man; that goes without saying," Hermione told Ginny. "And you will be Maid of Honour, whether you like it or not."

"I don't know, Hermione," Ginny said, glancing Harry's way again. "I don't think you really understand. I don't want to spend anytime with him."

"He wants to spend time with you though," Hermione smirked, also gazing at her best friend. "Just in case you hadn't noticed." Ginny rolled her eyes. "Look, I know he was horrible to you, but it made sense to him somewhere in his head. The fact of the matter is he cares about you so much even Ron has noticed it. And that's saying a fair bit. And if Harry does want to get back with you, what's so wrong with that?"

"So you're saying I should just forgive him?" Ginny scorned heatedly. "Just because it apparently made sense to him? Forgive and forget? He hasn't even apologised."

"He's been trying if that means anything," She told her. "And I know that he didn't mean to hurt you."

"But he did hurt me," Ginny admitted, scowling at Harry again. "So much so that no amount of apologies will make him get a second, wait third chance. I'm not going to let him even get the opportunity to hurt me again."

"He wouldn't," Hermione said after a pause, staring down her best friend. "You've been avoiding him for two months,"

"Quite successfully too,"

"So surely it must just be easier to hear him out and vaguely consider giving him a chance?"

Ginny scowled again, but this time at Hermione. "Look, I don't think you understand," She told her. "When you guys left, I told him. I told him I wasn't going to sit around pining for him, and I haven't. I don't want to talk to him, so I don't have to." She stuck out her chin defiantly. "He doesn't deserve the chance anyway."

"Do you still care about him though?" Hermione pushed, her eyebrows raised. Ginny sighed.

"He's Harry Potter," She plainly whispered. "Everyone cares about him."

"You know what I mean, Ginny."

She bit her lip thoughtfully. "I'm not going to lie to you Hermione, I do," Hermione smirked at this. "But not enough that I would want to date him again. I'm not going to go and put myself on the line again for an arsehole that doesn't deserve it, let alone the arsehole that effectively broke my heart. And I really don't want to be your Maid of Honour if I'm stuck talking to him." Hermione examined Ginny for a moment before nodding.

Hermione sighed loudly, closing her eyes. " Plan B then. Excuse me," Hermione got up and walked over to Ron, pulling him up off the couch. In a brief moment of picturesque intimacy, Hermione stood close to him as Ron cocked his head so she could whisper in his ear. He nodded a couple of times, and glanced between Harry and Ginny. After a moment, he walked over to Ginny. The next thing she knew, Ron was leading her quietly down to the kitchen with a firm grip on her upper arm.

"Sit," Ron demanded pulling out a chair, which she sat in, only mildly confused. A second later, Hermione dragged an outcrying Harry through the door by his hair. She pushed him into the chair next to Ginny as he massaged his head.

"Sit," Ron repeated as Ginny made to get up. She instead edged her chair away from Harry's.

"Okay," Hermione said with a painful smile, looking between the two of them. "We're not asking for much from you two." Her and Ron stood in front of them with their arms crossed, both of them wearing a grimace and looking down on Harry and Ginny as if they were naughty school children who needed punishing.

"Even though I think you two are stupid not to, we're not telling you that you have to date again." Ron glared down on his sister and best friend. "We're not asking you to like each other; you don't have to be friends. We're not even asking you to talk."

"As Best Man and Maid of Honour, and no you are not getting out of it Ginny, despite what you think, you really don't have to do that much together," Hermione told them. "You have to walk about twenty meters together, pose in a few photographs and dance once. No, you don't get to roll your eyes at me, Harry Potter. Shut up and listen. During all of that walking, dancing and photos, you have to smile and pretend that you get along."

"In the past two months, two things have become very clear," Ron told them both sternly. "As my best mate and my sister, it's pretty obvious. You're moping, and you're angry." He indicated to Harry and Ginny in turn.

"I have not been moping." Harry said sullenly as Ginny glared at Ron and Hermione.

"Yes you most certainly have," Hermione glared at him with slight pity. "Drinking yourself stupid, Ginny this, Ginny that, Ginny won't talk to me, she's ignoring me, Ginny hates me, I wonder why?"

"You wonder why?" Ginny spat, turning to face Harry. "You're more of a daft git then I ever even imagined."

"Oh, she has a voice!" Harry exclaimed scornfully, looking at Ginny apprehensively. "Was that an acknowledgement of my existence? I've been trying to run into you for the past two months Gin, and you know it because every time you see me coming you run of in the other direction! You're the daft git here, I just want to talk to you!"

"Well, I don't want to talk to you!" She squared her shoulder, eyes glaring at him.

"You are now though," Harry smirked at her. "So please, do tell, why do you hate me so much?"

"You know perfectly well why I hate you," Ginny whispered dangerously, her ears turning red.

"I don't actually," Harry told her plainly as Ron and Hermione watched on. "Unless you're gripping onto all that nonsense that you thought was important."

She gave a noise of disgust. "Somehow it doesn't surprise me that you don't know," She said fiercely. "I s'pose it's quite easy to forget that perhaps I have feelings. You're an arse."

"I'm an arse?" Harry asked in mock excitement. "Care to go into details of how I'm an arse? You're being a bit vague."

"No, I don't want to explain, not really," She said angrily. "I think you can remember, and besides, if Ron knew how you treated me, how horrid you were to me, then he'd probably beat you to a bloody pulp, and we wouldn't want that now, it'd ruin Hermione's wedding photos."

"Tell Ron all you want Gin, maybe unlike you, he'll see the sense in it," Harry stuck out his lower lip, and Ginny had a sudden urge to kiss him, to show him what he was missing. "Maybe Ron will think, hmm, it seems that Harry was trying to protect Ginny. Perhaps he had her best interests at heart."

"Okay Harry, let's tell Ron everything," She drew out the last word, her eyes gleaming in retribution as she met his. "And I don't think you had my best interests at heart." Again, she stressed the last word. He paled slightly, looking at her with shock.

"This is what we're talking about," Hermione moaned, sounding defeated. Ron put an arm around her shoulders. "I knew this would happen! You two are being pathetic. What's done is done, why can't you two just forget it?"

"Look," Ron said threateningly. "On the 26th of February we are getting married. That gives you around…"

"Sixty-one," Hermione supplied.

"Sixty-one days to grow up and get over it, or at least learn how to pretend to be civil to each other," Ron finished.

"And if not?" Ginny asked, her jaw set.

"You two will ruin our wedding," Hermione said simply, moving towards the door. "And I'll never forgive either of you for being so stupidly pig-headed and not realising what's best for yourself." She left the room, Ron trailing after her.

They sat together in a huffy silence for a moment before Ginny spoke.

"This is your fault, you know Harry." His name tasted sour in her mouth.

"Why?"

"It just is."

"Well, I'm sorry if that helps," Harry said dejectedly as an owl hooted outside. "I'm sorry for everything. I just want to make things right, you know? I want things to be like they used to."

"Sorry really means nothing to me," She told him in quiet annoyance. "And things will never be how they used to be. It's all changed. And our opinions differ a fair bit if we're talking about what right is."

He looked at her plainly for a moment.

"I can't be bothered fighting with you."

"I can."

"Whatever Gin, I'm going home," Harry told her, sighing deeply. "When you want to have a civil discussion about us, my floo is always open."

"That's never then," She said stubbornly. He met her eyes for a moment, clearly disappointed. He turned to the fireplace.

He threw a handful of glittery green powder from flowerpot on the mantle into the fireplace. Shouting "The Loft," Harry disappeared, leaving Ginny alone with her thoughts.

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A/N: Not as long as the last one, butt reviews are loved. My birthdays in a couple of days (Feb 4th), so review me a harry seventeenth! (haha, I'm pretending to be funny) 


	6. Pipedream

**Fix You**

A/N: Well, school started, Mum banned me from the computer, I got one of my front teeth knocked out playing basketball, I got the first three seasons of The OC on DVD… I've been rather busy… And just so you do know, I wrote half the last sequence before seeing the OC NYE season one episode… They're just really similar. If you want to imagine Harry, Ron and Hermione's flat, think Monica and Chandler's on Friends.

Oh, and I'm pretty sure that I've stolen the term bridezilla from somewhere/someone, but it seems to work so if I got it from you sorry! And a brief cameo from everyone's favourite Quidditch fanatic!

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**Pipedream**

Daily Prophet, December 30th, 2001

_Hunting Harry_

_Don't let it Claim Our Saviour_

_In the wake of He Who Must Not Be Named's bout of terror, half of the celebrating youth have been caught in the careless lifestyle of the young party witch and wizards. As The Daily Prophet has reported several times in recent times, these people are not only throwing away their own future, but the future of our world too. And as seen by the opposite picture, it seems that this vampiric lifestyle has claimed the best. You read correctly, Mr Harry Potter, the Chosen Boy Who Lived has been taken by this venomous lifestyle._

_Potter was seen partying earlier this week at The Leaky Cauldron best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger who were celebrating their recent engagement. Also at this party were Weasley's twin brothers and younger sister, though Potter was seen to have little contact with these three above slight waves through the night and a rushed conversation._

_Some may ask the question of why it is such a bad thing for our saviour to have a little fun; he did save us all after all. However, there is a significant difference between a young man enjoying himself and a rampaging youth. Upon leaving the party, heavily intoxicated, Potter saw fit to damage several press cameras after photos were taken of him. And according to several of Potter's fellow partygoers (who obviously wish to remain anonymous), this is not unusual behaviour for the boy who lived._

"_Ever since the war ended, Potter's turned up at these things relatively regularly," one said. "I've heard that he's been seen at some party, Muggle club or pub every night. And he gets blind drunk every time."_

_Since the defeat of You-Know-Who, Potter has been offered a bevy of employment options, from his childhood dream of becoming and Auror, to professional Quidditch (a long time passion of his), and even a traineeship here at The Daily Prophet. At the current time, he remains unemployed. It seems quite obvious to this reporter what is happening to our young hero. He is on a self destructive bender, fuelled by grief and depression. It happens to even the best it seems, and we can only offer our support._

"Wow," Harry said to Ron, turning the page of the paper. "A self-destructive bender, that's a new one." Ron squirmed quietly in his chair.

"It's not as bad as some have been in the past, not as bad as fifth year at least," Harry went on as Ron ate his toast. It was a Saturday morning, and Harry and Ron were sitting eating breakfast in the flat that they shared with Hermione. It had magically enhanced high, vaulted ceilings and was mainly made up of one big room, a kitchen-cum-dining room-cum-lounge. A fireplace sat in the kitchen, a stark contrast to the large Muggle TV that both Harry and Hermione had insisted on. Five doors left off from the main area, three bedrooms (one with an ensuite, which Ron and Hermione had felt compelled to give to Harry, "He did pay after all," Hermione had reasoned), one to another bathroom, the last to a little windy balcony, which (after the correct concealing spells) you could fly a broom off.

"Where's your missus anyway?" Harry asked Ron.

"Um, well," Ron said awkwardly, checking his watch. "She'll be back any minute now, and she's brining Ginny."

"Ginny won't come," Harry said, shaking his head into his coffee.

"She doesn't know you'll be here," Ron smirked.

"Does Hermione want to start a fight or something?" Harry asked disbelievingly. "Or does she just think it would be funny to see the Bat-Bogey Hex inflicted on me?"

"What happened there anyway?" Ron asked quietly. "With Ginny I mean."

"Aerrgh," Harry groaned moodily, "She was all like 'I'm coming with you,' so I told her no. But you know what she's like, stubborn and all."

"And?" Ron prompted after a brief silence where Harry downed the rest of his coffee.

"Well, she obviously didn't take no as an answer," Harry told him gruffly. "So I said some pretty bad stuff to her to make her not want to be anywhere near me."

"It seemed to have worked," Ron smirked. "Surely by now she would see that you were just trying to protect her though?"

"That's what I thought too!" Harry exclaimed. "I knew she'd be angry, but she should be over it by now, after everything that's happened. I mean, my plan worked, she's still alive."

"Don't worry too much, mate," Ron told him wisely. "All girls are mental."

"And you're the one marrying one," Harry pointed out. "The second most crazy one I know. Behind Loony of course." Ron snorted with laughter. "Anyway, I'm having a shower."

Harry turned on the hot water as he heard the front door open and the obvious arrival of two female voices. He had an extra long shower; as he knew when he got out he would have to face Ginny. And he really didn't want to. When she saw him, she got angry. And when she got angry it was not a pretty sight for the person who she was angry at.

But surely she could see by now? She knew he wanted her, she knew that he loved her. Of course she could just take him back, couldn't she? Harry had knew that she most certainly would be angry, but as he had told Ron, after the war he figured that she'd just be happy to see him alive and would just drop all the fighting. She would just accept that he was a noble prat and love him for it. Apparently she thought differently. Harry was just going to have to work harder for her forgiveness.

"Help me," Ron mouthed as Harry entered the kitchen twenty minutes later. Hermione, grinning broadly and slightly red in the face had several piles of wedding books scattered on the table between the condiments left from breakfast. As she scuttled around and picked up a pile, she revealed a scowling Ginny. It seemed she was just as enthusiastic as he brother, though perhaps for different reasons.

"Harry,' Hermione rounded on him as he sat next to Ron, opposite Ginny. Hermione held up two large squares of fabric. "The blue or the pink?"

"Er, why?" He asked her cautiously.

"The theme colours for the wedding!" Hermione exclaimed. When he looked dumbfounded, she rolled her eyes and continued. "You boys are hopeless, honestly! The colour of Ron and your ties, Ginny's dress, all the tablecloths and in general everything. Blue or pink?"

"Er…"

"I know, the blue is a little bright," Hermione went on rapidly. "And the pink is likely to clash with the Weasley hair. I need your help Harry, this is a vital decision."

"Why don't these two?" Harry asked warily. "Ron should get a say, it's his wedding too."

"But he suggested orange," Hermione groaned as Ron grinned at Harry. "And Ginny wants black, but you can't wear black to a wedding." Harry looked at her, but she was staring determinedly at the light fitting.

"But why do I have to help then?" Harry asked hopelessly. "I might choose something equally as horrible!"

"Oh, no you wouldn't," Hermione told him, flipping through a book expertly as Ron lowered his head into his arms on the table. "You always choose the best ink colours. And Ron," she started on him, "If you're not helping you can at least pack up the other mess here. Put the butter away or something."

"Yeah, you better put the butter away," Harry told him. "We wouldn't want any butter related incidents here now, would we?" If looks could kill, Harry was dead several times over.

"Well, Harry?" Hermione demanded as Ron cleared the table. "The colours!"

"Um, I really don't know, Hermione," Harry said wearily. "Like a greyish-purpley colour or something? Or light green?"

"Green like avocadoes," Ron said dreamily. "Like that shop that sells those really good chicken and avocado sandwiches. I could go one right now. You coming Harry?"

"Sure," Harry said quickly, not wanting to be in the same room as either Ginny or Hermione for too long out of the fear of doing something that would warrant a good curse.

"Oh, no you don't!" Hermione yelled huffily and Ginny smirked and shook her head at her brother. "These are vital decisions we are making here, and you two need to be helping! We can't plan anything until after we choose the colours, so-" She was cut of by two pops of apparition.

"Hello," Fred said warily, looking at Hermione's bridal magazines in disgust.

"Poor things," George said to his twin, nodding towards Harry and Ron. "The thought of Fleur like this still gives me nightmares."

"That was a scary sight," Fred complied. "Though give Hermione a couple of weeks and Veela or not, she could give Bridezilla Fleur a run for her galleons."

"Fleur was pregnant too, though, don't forget that," George pointed out.

"Merlin knows we won't let her," Ginny added in mockingly.

"It'll be a close call," Fred said as if he were talking about an upcoming Quidditch game. "We can't underestimate our Hermione here."

"Bridezilla Phlegm will be a lot worse than Hermione will be." Ginny said pointedly.

Hermione closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and held it for a moment before exhaling. "Why are you two here?" She asked wearily as Ginny sighed and started flipping through a magazine on cakes.

"Well, we're here to ask Harry out on a date with us," Fred said, fluttering her eyelashes at a bemused Harry.

"We ran into Oliver Wood yesterday," George explained. "We're meeting him for lunch in half and hour at the Leaky Cauldron and were wondering, Harry, if you'd like to come with?"

"Sure," Harry said, smirking at Ron.

"Can I come too?" Ron pleaded him.

"Have you been listening to anything Hermione has been saying?" Harry mocked sternly. "These are important wedding decisions being made here today." Hermione glared at him.

"You should stay too, Harry," Hermione told him reproachfully. "You need to help as well."

"I'd only stuff something up," Harry told her. "Apparently I'm quite good at that. And besides, I haven't seen Oliver in ages."

"You'll never guess who he's dating," George smirked at Harry. "Good ole Cho Chang."

"Cho Chang?" Harry asked incredulously. Ginny scowled and turned a page in her magazine.

"Yeah," Fred said, searching the kitchen cupboards for food. "They came into the shop together."

"Oh, then let me guess," Harry said sourly. "He went on and on about Quidditch and she cried into his shoulder."

"Yeah," George said. "Minus the crying part though."

"Bingo," Fred said, pulling out half a bottle of Firewhisky and a packet of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans. He necked the bottle then swallowed a couple of beans. "Mmm, vomit, Firewhisky, celery and sand. Perfect mixture."

"Put it away," Harry scowled at Fred.

"Why?" He asked Harry. "Saving it for your next drunken bender oh tragic hero?"

"We saw the paper this morning," George said, answering the unasked question. "I'm quite proud, that's like our fourth mention in _Hunting Harry_. You got one this morning too, Ginny."

"What?" She sparked up, dropping the magazine and looking alarmed. "I don't want to be associated with that rubbish they print in the stupid newspaper. Why am I in there anyway?"

"Because we're related to Ron," George said unhappily.

"Oh yeah," Ron said, nodding his head happily. "No longer that Weasley kid whose brothers are those funny twins or the guy whose sister has the painful hexes; you guys are related to Ron Weasley."

"That's pathetic," Ginny said. "Fame because you're friends with someone who has glorified themself to the media-"

"Stay civil, please," Hermione cut across tiredly as Harry opened his mouth to retort angrily.

"I'm going to lunch," Harry spat, standing up and he Apparated with a soft pop after a glare at Ginny.

"You didn't mean that did you?" Hermione asked Ginny annoyed. Ginny smirked happily as Ron shook his head at her.

"No, not really," Ginny said. "I just knew it would annoy him."

"What's going on here?" Fred asked, looking confused as George looked from his sister to where Harry had been two seconds ago.

"I'm going home," She said, dropping the magazine she had been reading and she also stood up and Apparated away.

"Well, it was an improvement," Ron pointed out as Hermione sighed despairingly.

"They are both so infuriatingly stupid!" Hermione exclaimed. "And far too stubborn for their own good."

"Um, repeating what Fred said," George began, looking at Ron and Hermione curiously, "What in the name of Dumbledore's flying Thestrals is going on here?" Ron looked at Hermione, who shrugged.

"They're both madly in love with each other but refuse to get along because they had some big fight," Hermione said exasperatedly. "But don't tell anyone."

"Harry and our baby sister?" Fred exclaimed in a mixture of shock and anger. "Little Ginny? Since when?"

"Um, sixth year was it?" Ron asked Hermione, who nodded. Fred and George's mouths were wide open in shock.

"Oh, long before that, he just didn't realise until then," Hermione smirked. "It was so cute when they got together."

"What, how he grabbed her and snogged her in front of the entire house?" Ron snorted, turning to her. "It was sickening."

"Harry what?" Fred asked, looking at Ron angrily. "And you did nothing, Ron? You just broke the Weasley brother's code!"

"Well better Harry then some other smarmy bloke," Ron told the twins. "Better then stupid Dean Thomas or Michael Corner."

"Point," George said and they sat in brooding silence around the table for a moment. "So why are they fighting?"

"Well, she wanted to come with us, so Harry was a real prick to her to make her stay away," Ron said. "That was at Bill and Fleur's wedding."

"And now instead of having a proper conversation they insist of bickering incessantly." Hermione said.

"Sounds like you two,"

"I resent that," Ron said to a chortling Fred.

"So what did her say to her?" George asked. "Do you guys know?"

"Nup," Ron said, shrugging his shoulders.

"Yes but I'm not telling you lot," Hermione replied sneakily.

"What?" The three Weasley brothers yelped at the same time.

"C'mon, I tell you stuff," Ron whined to his fiancée. Hermione shook her head at the three expectant boys.

"If I told you you'd probably do what Voldemort never managed to and top him."

"That bad?" Fred asked.

"They'll get over it," Hermione said, not completely believing what she was saying.

"I hope they do soon," Ron said, taking some of the Bertie Bott's that Fred had dropped onto the table. "All the complaining is really starting to bug me. Four years of Harry whining about Ginny hating him is really starting to get on my nerves."

"Ha, I just had a thought," Fred said. "Imagine what Mum'll be like when we tell her."

"She wanted to marry Ginny off to that poor bloke from the moment she saw him on the train platform," George laughed.

"You can't tell her though," Hermione said forcefully.

"Where's the fun in that, Hermione?" Fred said as George muttered "spoilsport."

"Well, because Ginny would hate us all," Hermione started. "Harry would leave the country to avoid the magnitude of the red-heads all wanting to hug him. So you can't until at least after the wedding."

"So on like February 27th then?" George said.

"Sure," Ron smirked. "Tell everyone in the world if the two idiots haven't got their act together by then."

"That's like three months away though," Fred complained.

"You can tease them as much as you want," Hermione said. "Just don't let anyone else know or I'll make you pay and Ron won't really care, Harry will make you pay and Ginny most certainly will do something to make you regret spreading it around."

* * *

"Merry New Years," Harry said, raising a glass of suspiciously alcoholic liquid into the air. Ron, Hermione and the twins all met his with a little chink of glass.

They were at Oliver Wood's New Years Eve party. After meeting with him the previous day for a Quidditch fuelled conversation, he had invited Harry and the twins to the party, telling them to bring friends too. It seemed he had told everyone that; the house was packed like hippogriffs in a barrel. They were sitting in Oliver's fancy living room; being a professional Quidditch player seemed to pay. Loud music was thudding through the walls and the masses of people, the air thick with voices and the distinct smell of alcohol and sweat from all the clammy bodies pressed to each other in the crowded, dim room.

"What's the time?" Fred asked and Hermione peered at her watch.

"Quarter to midnight."

"Having fun?" Oliver drawled, stumbling over, slightly drunk.

"Yeah, for sure," George replied, draining his own glass.

"How many people are here?" Harry asked him.

"A couple of hundred," Oliver shrugged, leaning so close to Harry that he could smell the Firewhisky on his breath. "But between me and you Chosen kid wonder, I don't know half of them. Most of them are from our Hogwarts time though."

"Are Katie, Angelina and Alicia here?" Fred asked him. "We can have an old style Quidditch reunion."

"They're here somewhere," Oliver said. "I'll go find them." He made to spin around, in the process tripping and falling on Harry.

"You stay here," Harry told him, managing to manoeuvre Oliver into the chair where he had previously been sitting.

"Thanks Wonder Kid Who Chose!" Oliver laughed heartily to Harry began to push his way through the crowd on the look out for the three former chasers.

He made his way into a large, but equally crowded kitchen. The people were spilling out into a crowded garden where Harry could see a throng of people dancing wildly. He scanned the room quickly for the three former chasers, but instead spotted some one else.

"Neville! Dean, Seamus," Harry pushed through the crowd towards his former roommates Neville Longbottom, Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnegan, swaying slightly and wondering himself how much he had had to drink.

"Harry! Happy New Years!" Neville said, clapping Harry's shoulder. "How are you?"

"Fine," Harry said plainly. "Taking it easy. What about you guys? Dean, Seamus, I haven't seen you guys since we were all sixteen! How are you? What are you up to?"

"Ha, we're good," Seamus said to him, grinning broadly and tipping a suspicious looking liquid into Harry's near empty glass. "Compared to how you've been anyway. Off saving the world and all that jazz?"

"Yeah, I s'pose I have been," Harry said vaguely. "Do you guys have jobs or what?"

"I'm planning to open a pub," Seamus said. "Just starting the plans now."

"I draw up the adverts for Nimbus," Dean said shortly to Harry, not looking at him.

"I'm working for Grace's Greeneries," Neville told Harry. "We grow all the plants then sell them to apothecaries."

"That sounds like something up your tree Neville," Harry laughed to himself. "Geddit? Tree?"

"Hilarious, Harry," Seamus said to him, sipping his drink. "What about you, now that it's all over?"

"Well," Harry deliberated. "I have a flat at the top of a really tall Muggle building. Ron and Hermione live with me. They're work all day and are getting married, I have no job and I do nothing. It's fantastic. Although," he added, shaking his head, "apparently that makes me a desperate alcoholic with no hope."

"I read that," Neville told him. "Did you really smash up a camera?"

"They just shoved it in my face and started taking pictures," Harry mumbled. "What was I meant to do?" His former roommates laughed.

"So Ron and Hermione are really getting married then too?" Neville asked him curiously.

"Yeah," Harry smirked.

"When did he finally get on to asking her out then?" Seamus asked him. "It's just that us and a couple of the other DA members had a pool going."

"Like a month after school," Harry laughed. "At his brother's wedding."

"Looks like Ginny won then," Seamus said. "But she would have known back when it happened, so if she doesn't want to collect, it doesn't bother me." Dean, who had been previously avoiding Harry's gaze looked up and glared at him.

"What?" Harry asked him, only briefly confused. "Oh, I know. You still hate me because you think I took Ginny off you or something. If it's any consolation, she hates me now; we had some massive, horrid row." Even so, she'd been close to the first thing on his mind for the past five years.

"Everyone knows that you two had a bad break-up," Seamus said, rolling his eyes. "Or everyone who knew you two were ever going out anyway."

"So none of the Weasleys," Harry blushed.

"We kinda figured that something had happened there," Neville explained. "Given her current behaviour anyway."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked, trying to fit this piece in with everything. "She still seems like the same little Ginny that I left behind, she just won't even talk to me."

"I just want to know what you did to stuff her up so badly," Dean said, scowling slightly at Harry.

"What do you mean stuff her up?" Harry asked him angrily. "She's not some toy that can be broken or something."

"Well," Seamus deliberated for a moment. "She's not the same little Ginny that everyone loved back at Hogwarts." Harry rolled his eyes; they clearly didn't know her very well.

"What do you guys know anyway?" Harry asked them. "Nothing. I know her a lot better than the three of you put together!"

"We're the ones who have seen her over the past couple of years," Seamus told him. "We've seen her change while you've been gone."

"And she's changed a fair bit, Harry," Neville told him sadly. Harry opened and closed his mouth a couple of times, clearly not knowing how to respond to this. He shook his head.

"Why are we having this conversation?" Harry said aloud, more to himself then to Seamus, Dean or Neville. He looked up at the ceiling, breathing deeply.

"Look," Harry told them defiantly, turning to face them again. "I really don't know what you three are on about. She's still funny and stubborn and strong, and she's still got all those little things that make her Ginny. All those loveable little quirks or funny mannerisms or however you want to put it. So I don't really understand how she's changed that much or how I've apparently stuffed her up." He spat the last part at them.

"Oh, of course she's still the same person," Neville said quietly. "Most the time anyway. Some times she seems to get really depressed and quiet, and then she…" Neville dropped off mid-sentence, avoiding Harry's eyes determinately.

"Then she what?" Harry pushed.

"Er, Harry, I don't know quite how to put this," Seamus said awkwardly. "But you should know."

"Just say it how you see it," Harry said impatiently. "You lot are talking rubbish anyway."

"At these sort of things, Ginny often gets really quiet and then she drinks herself into a stupor and leaves with some guy," Dean said plainly. "So you're right, she hasn't changed much, just now she gets blind drunk first."

Harry's face fell. He had heard the sarcastic malice in the second comment, but his mind was still reeling from the first. A boyfriend. Ginny had a boyfriend. Somehow, Harry hadn't expected to have to deal with that sort of problem. He knew when he returned she'd be angry, and boy she was, but he hadn't expected this sort of problem. A boyfriend. It felt like his heart had fallen straight out of his chest and Ginny was stomping all over it in stilettos. He hadn't expected this at all. He had thought that when the war was over, if he survived, that they would just fall back together and have a normal, ecstatically boring life together. Get married, have a heap of kids and live in a house with a white picket fence. Every Sunday they would go to the Burrow for lunch. The kids would play Quidditch with their cousins and Harry would sit with his arm casually draped around Ginny's waist, hand resting on her stomach, protective of their unborn child. Hermione would yell at Fred and George as they tried to trick the kids into eating Canary Creams. Ron would laugh at the whole thing and call his wife mental as Ginny would give Harry a brief, soft kiss on the side of his mouth while Mrs Weasley doted on her grandchildren and her husband tinkered with their new Muggle car. He would stop being Harry Potter: saviour; he would transfer into Harry Potter: husband, father, son-in-law, uncle, happy. It was what had kept him sane through the war, that there was a slight chance for something in his life. A small chance for something better, and it had all revolved around Ginny. She was his everything, and with Voldemort gone, he thought that could happen. He wanted to keep her warm through cold nights; he wanted to hold her pretty red hair out of her face when she was sick. He wanted her to yell at him when he was wrong, cry into his shoulder when he was sad, and then he'd wring the neck of whoever caused her tears. He wanted to see her brown eyes light up when she laughed; he wanted to be the one who made her happy. He wanted to kiss her in public and let everyone know that they were each others and to hold her tight, to touch every inch of her body and to whisper in her bejewelled ear that there was no way anyone else could ever love someone as much as he loved her. He looked up at Neville, Dean and Seamus in the dark room. All the colours seemed surreal, harsher yet plainer. It was then he realised that she was right all those years ago. He had never only wanted her, he had needed her always. Some part of him told him that she was the only way he'd ever truly be happy. It now all seemed a pipedream, sending the kids to their first year at Hogwarts, her tears as they said their vows, happiness in his life.

"Who… who is he?" Harry asked defeatedly, his voice catching. If he couldn't be happy, at least knowing that she was would give him peace of mind. "Ginny's boyfriend. Is he a good guy?" The lump in his throat was painful, and her name in his mouth only made it worse. He could never have her, and it hurt knowing someone else did.

"I wouldn't say she has a boyfriend," Neville said quickly, as if it was slightly more bearable to tell Harry quickly. "An assortment of one night stands is a better description. I'm sorry Harry."

He didn't know if this was better or worse, but it certainly hurt more. There was no boyfriend; Harry really didn't have a competitor other then himself for her affections. It was good for him. But Harry knew that he'd rather be miserable with Ginny happy then to see her upset in anyway. She deserved someone to be her happiness. And now she was, hurting and it was his fault. Dean had said that Harry had stuffed her up. It seemed he was right.

"Is… is she here tonight?" Harry asked them. "I need it from her. I need to know for sure." Deep down he knew it was the truth. "I just need to see. Please."

"Hey," Seamus said loudly after examining Harry's crestfallen face for a moment. He tugged a man who he obviously knew over from a few meters away. The man pushed through the masses and joined their little huddle.

"Hey Seamus, Happy New Years man." Her nodded to Dean and Neville and looked at Harry curiously.

"Jake, do you know if Ginny Weasley is here tonight?" Seamus asked him quietly, pulling the mans gaze off Harry.

"Yeah, out back somewhere," The man laughed. "I wonder who she's taking home tonight.

Harry had torn of blindly before he had finished talking. The room began the countdown to bring in the New Year.

"Ten, nine,"

Harry pushed through the crowds, not bothering to apologise when he accidentally knocked a witch into the punch bowl. Why did so many people have to be here?

"Eight, seven, six,"

Harry burst out into the chilly night air. He looked around wildly for the telltale Weasley hair.

"Five, four,"

Spotted. Harry was sickened to see her nestled up in the crook of some guys arm. She looked beautiful. Harry didn't spare a moment for the guy. It didn't matter who he was or what he looked like; by the sounds of it, she wouldn't stick around in the morning anyway. All that mattered about the guy was that he wasn't Harry.

"Three, two,"

She had seen him staring. He stood on the back door stoop, looking over the heads of the crowd. As she met his eyes, it felt like she was seeing straight through him, the old blazing look. His feelings and emotions always had lived on his sleeve.

"One."

A smirk escaped her lips as she saw his face. Shock, pain, anger, and in general, loss.

Revenge.

"Happy New Years!"

People went wild. Harry was unresponsive as he was hugged by strangers twice. He never broke the eye contact. She raised her eyebrows, mocking him with the slight movement then turned away. She brought in the New Year with a kiss from the man whose arm she was under, and when she turned back he was gone.

* * *

A/N: I hope the length makes up for the wait! Reviews are loved! And I hope you enjoyed the little character cameos! 


	7. Insanity

**Fix You**

A/N: Well, it's almost my school holidays, and I've update three times in term, so I think that's a pretty good effort. With holidays just a week away for me and because I just got a laptop, I should be able to write quickisher.

**Chapter Seven - Insanity**

* * *

_January 7th, 2002_

"So have you two finalised the tablecloth designs yet?" Mrs Weasley asked one surprisingly sunny Saturday morning. Ron stared at her bleakly.

"Tablecloth designs?" He asked, clearly not as enticed by this topic as his mother.

"I honestly don't think that Ron cares, Mum," Ginny said, sipping a mug of steaming coffee.

"I think he cares as much about the tablecloths as I do," Hermione's dad Frank said, looking at his future-son-in-law with pride. "Not very much indeed. They're tableclothes. I don't think people are going remember your wedding by certain tablecloths."

"Dad!" Hermione scolded him. Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Mr and Mrs Weasley and Mr and Mrs Granger were in Harry, Ron and Hermione's flat, each gripping a cup of coffee, cramped around the small kitchen table which was laden with an organised mess of all things wedding. "With just over a month to go, this is important now!"

"I'm sure we could talk about something else dear," He told his daughter earnestly.

"Dad, I know what you want, and we're not talking about fireworks until Fred and George get here," Hermione told him.

"Oh." His face fell.

"They told me that they should be here at ten-thirtyish," Ginny said, glancing at the clock above the kitchen sink. "So any time soon."

"When did you see your brothers?" Mr Weasley asked her.

"Oh, George flooed me yesterday," Ginny explained. "Fred put too much Skele-Grow into one of their products and they wanted to know what the side effects could be."

"So after those two it's just Harry who isn't here then," Mrs Granger said. Ginny looked down into her cup. "Is he still in asleep?"

"He was out with Neville until late last night," Hermione said. "So he must be."

Ginny scoffed inwardly at this comment. He wasn't out the night before with Neville. Or Luna, or Seamus or anyone that he had been telling Ron and Hermione he was spending his time with. He had been pretty much stalking her for the past couple of weeks. Bars, clubs, parties, wherever Ginny had gone, she had soon seen a black haired bespectacled man turn up some time later. Whenever she turned around, he was staring at her with that disgusting disappointed look on his face every night without fail. She knew that when he saw her at those things it killed him. She didn't know why he kept coming back, but he always did, and he always saw her leave with someone who wasn't him.

Last night had been one of these. When she had left with Mike (or was it Mark,? She couldn't be certain), that moment when he was just looking at her as she left, Harry was feeling all the pain that she had. It gave her a detached sense of satisfaction to see him looking so hopeless, feeling like she could only imagine knowing she was doing everything in her power to make her suffer. She loved it, knowing that he was literally going insane with guilt, lust, jealously and regret. And whenever she read the paper and saw the speculation on what had been dubbed "Potter's Bender", she smiled, knowing that it was truer than even the author realised.

And a lot of this downfall was due to her. Ginny liked to take the blame for it. When Hermione had yet again questioned Ginny on Harry and why she just didn't forget, Ginny again smiled, Hermione confirming her right.

"He's going nuts," Hermione told her through the fire. "The papers are right for once I think. Ron and I found him passed out and soaking in his own vomit the other day. And Ginny, I honestly believe that a lot of that is your fault." Hermione had said this as if it was a reason for Ginny to take Harry back, as if that they would be better off together. "Good."

"You should go get Harry up," Ron told Hermione, taking a bite out of his croissant. "Iffs aarw uern."

"Ron!" Mrs Weasley yelled at him. The twins laughed loudly.

"I should?" Hermione asked him in disbelief and disgust. "He's _your_ best friend."

"Yours too," Ron swallowed. "And I did it last time."

"You did not," Hermione told him. "You opened the door and then left me to actually wake him." Pop.

"Well, we're in for a fun day," Fred smirked as George also appartated in to the flat with a similar pop, causing Hedwig and Pig who were sitting on their perches in the corner of the room look up suspiciously. The Grangers both looked uncomfortable at this blatant burst of magic.

"Ron and Hermione bickering like there is no tomorrow," George smiled, shaking his head. "Reminds me of our fifth year."

"And sixth."

"Not seventh though," George went on. "That was more just Harry yelling at everyone. Ooh, and punching people."

"Well, that's today's dosage of Hogwarts nostalgia," Hermione said pointedly as her parents looked suddenly midly concerned. "Now you two can help with the wedding."

"Well, that's why we're here," George told her. "No-one sane wakes up this early on a Saturday."

"Except Oliver Wood," Fred told him.

"I said sane, dearest twin."

"What did I just say about nostalgia?" Hermione asked them, half-coldly. "How about we all just do something?"

"Let's talk about the fireworks now!" Mr Granger said excitedly.

"You're a pyromaniac, aren't you?" Ginny asked him.

"Don't encourage it," Mrs Granger said exasperatedly.

"Where's Princess Potter?" George asked the table at large, looking around suspiciously. "Shouldn't hero Harry the saviour, Chosen Best Man who Lived on a drunken rampage be here too?"

"It's Hermione's turn to wake him up," Ron said automatically. "She's getting him now." He grinned at his fiancée.

"You're helping," Hermione told him tiredly, tugging at the shoulder of his shirt to make him follow and pulling their wands, they advanced on the door to Harry's room cautiously. Mr Granger excitedly struck up a conversation with Fred and George.

Hermione pushed the door open, revealing a fully dressed Harry lying face down over t covers on his unmade bed, glasses askew. Ron stepped over the piles of clothes on his floor, edging past his upturned cauldron, thrown haphazardly aside towards a slightly snoring Harry. Hermione turned her nose up at the musty smell of stale alcohol wafting off Harry.

"Harry," Ron said loudly, poking him with his wand.

"At least he hasn't thrown up this time," Hermione sighed. "Wake up Harry," She said loudly as Ron poked him again. Harry shifted slightly, groaned then opened his eyes before squinting and holding his head in pain.

"What time do you call this?" Harry mumbled before sitting up.

"Time to get up," Hermione told him. "And you smell really bad. Scourgify." She brandished her wand and Harry shuddered as the spell hit him and the smell decreased slightly.

"C'mon mate," Ron said, stepping past Harry's things and back into the kitchen. Harry groaned again and rolled off his bed and straight onto the cold wooden floor. He got up gingerly, wondering how much he had had to drink the night before, and made his way into the kitchen.

"Oh," Harry said, looking around, squinting through his slightly out of place glasses, clothes crumpled. His eyes met Ginny's for a split second before she looked away. "I didn't know people were here." His eyes lingered on Ginny as he walked over, getting a glass of water from the sink.

How could she sit in his flat, drinking his coffee when he had seen her just last night running off with some random wizard, knowing full well she was breaking his heart with a vengant grin? He had told her that he loved her all those years ago, something he had never said to anyone else. He wasn't an overly open person, and it had taken something from him to be able to say that to her. He thought it had meant something when she had said it back. Apparently not. He broke his gaze, mildly disgusted.

"You look like crap, Harry," Fred told him.

"Thanks," Harry groaned, Fred's voice sounding three time its normal volume, making his ears ring as he flicked his wand at the coffee pot, causing it to boil instantly.

"Big night?" George asked him in quiet curiousity. Harry was suddenly very aware of the four adults in the room.

"No," he lied, sipping from his mug, making the throbbing in his head decrease slightly, then drawing up a chair between the twins and Hermione. "Just hung out with Neville until late." He met Ginny's eyes again briefly and they suddenly reached a silent agreement; they didn't talk about this. They didn't acknowledge that Ginny had seen Harry completely drunk and Harry wouldn't mention Ginny's hook-ups.

"That's not what the Prophet said," George smirked at him.

"C'mon George, I'm sure that I can chat with Neville and be a lunatic drunk at the same time," Harry joked mildly.

"Lunatic drunk?" Mr Weasley questioned him. "This morning you're a clinically depressed alcoholic whose unemployment is prompting violence, suicide and idolisation of a state of nothingness amongst children. Every heart in the nation is breaking as they watch your downward spiral." Harry looked dumbfounded. "Apparently." Mr Weasley

"They used to be annoying," Harry mused, his head aching a little less. "Now it's borderline ridiculous."

"It's borderline true," Hermione muttered under her breath.

"What was that?" Harry asked her, barely making out what she had said.

"Nothing, Harry. How about everyone gets back to the wedding now?" She asked smoothly.

"No, what?" Harry pushed questioningly. "I don't trust you."

"You shouldn't ever trust her," Fred said, wearing a smirk identical to the one that had also just popped up on his twins face. "Or Ron for that matter either. Those two have been dishing out your little secrets." Ron shot him a glare which his brother smiled and ignored.

"What secrets?" Harry asked automatically. "What are you on about?" He looked at Ron and Hermione suspiciously, and they both had their heads down avoiding his gaze as he felt himself blushing.

"Apparently you've got yourself a girlfriend, Potter," Fred smirked, half happy, half angry. Harry saw Ginny pale slightly from the corner of his eye. "Apparently you got yourself this girlfriend a while ago. What I want to know is not why you kept it a secret but how you managed to for so long."

"You have a girlfriend?" Mrs Weasley squeed. "Oh, Harry, what's her name? You have to dinner at the Burrow sometime. Will she be at the wedding?"

"Er," Harry stuttered, blushing in a way that would put Ron's ears to shame. He could see Ginny doing the exact opposite, paling so that her freckles stuck out more than usual. "I don't have a girlfriend."

"Well, that's the problem, isn't it," Ron told him as the twins snickered. Harry glared at them fiercely.

"Harry, definitely bring her to dinner at the Burrow," George told him. "I'm pretty sure that would go down well." Ginny looked like she was about to be sick, fortunately all attention was on Harry at the moment, the Weasley's all either smirking or looking at him questioningly, the Grangers looking mildly curious.

"No," Harry said forcefully. "Just leave me alone."

"Okay," Fred said happily.

"Up until the wedding at least," George smiled.

"These two," Fred said, nodding at the betrothed, "Ron and Hermione told us that we could tell anyone we liked about your lady friend as long as we waited until after their wedding."

"Oh, come on," Harry moaned angrily. "Just leave it for once. Please, just leave me alone." He folded his arms huffily, glaring at everyone who even so much as looked at him.

"We'll tell you first, Mum," George told his mother with a grin at his sister, who was staring at the blank wall above the stove.

"I've got a better idea," Harry said scathingly. "You could just leave me alone."

"Mate," Ron said, looking taken aback, "we're just teasing."

"Well, it's not funny," Harry said irately. He glanced at Ginny who was staring into her mug. "Just get over it and move on. It seems like the thing to do these days." Ginny looked up at him at this, but Harry avoided her eyes determinately.

"Fireworks?" Mr Granger asked tentatively. The table was silent for a moment before a forced discussion of fireworks began.

* * *

"Thanks for coming everyone," Ron said three hours later as everyone stretched tiredly.

"Yes, thankyou," Hermione said, hugging her parents after scuttling around the table and collecting all the wedding papers that they had organised that day, then going to her room.

"Worst three hours of my life," George exclaimed.

"Since History of Magic at least," Fred smirked as his parents apparated away. "We had to work really hard for our marks in that class. T is a rather good effort."

"I would call it a solid achievement," George told him. Only the twins, Ron, Ginny and Harry remained sitting around the table, Hermione was fetching her parent's coats from her room.

"I managed an E in that somehow," Ginny said. "Mainly because Hermione let me borrow her notes from the year before."

"That's the only reason me and Harry passed too," Ron admitted.

"You passed?" Harry asked him, sounding amused.

"You didn't?"

"I was a little preoccupied during that exam." Harry said softly.

"So I'll see you next week when I come and stay," Hermione said to her parents, the three of them emerging from her room.

"Next Thursday," Mr Granger said.

"We'll see you then," his wife said, kissing Hermione's cheek.

"Are you going home to stay for a bit?" Harry asked Hermione, mildly confused.

"Yes, you know that," Hermione sighed. "Up until the wedding. We told you weeks ago."

"But I thought you were going home," Harry said to Ron.

"I am."

"You're both going at the same time? You're leaving me by myself?" Harry asked, half amazed. "Full on, you two haven't left me alone for more than a couple of hours since... since I was sixteen, I think."

"Think you can take care of yourself?" Fred asked him. Harry rolled his eyes at the twin.

"I'll see you then," Hermione told her parents. "I'll stay at home up until the wedding."

"Wedding," Mr Granger said. "It's so hard to believe that you're so grown up. You used to be just our little girl with buck teeth and now you have some big important job, are getting married and live with two burly men." He smiled at her daughter proudly.

"Burly?" Fred asked humourlessly. "You're kidding right? Mr Scrawny and The Lank?"

"We'll see you all soon," Mrs Granger said as she and her husband left through the front door.

"Burly," George said to himself, shaking his head. "I have no idea where he got that from."

"I'm not scrawny," Harry said, sounding mildly self conscious. "It's seekers build."

"Scrawny," George said plainly.

"I'm taller than you," Harry told him.

"You were still the scrawniest little kid ever," Fred explained.

"That's not my fault," Harry puffed. Ginny rolled her eyes at this cave-man behaviour. Hermione, upon seeing this spoke up.

"I need your help to put this stuff away, Ron," Hermione told him forcefully, looking between Harry and Ginny pointedly.

"You got it out by- oh," He caught her gist slightly late, but got up and the two of them escaped into Hermione's room, casting an uncomfortable silence over the table.

"I think we're meant to leave now, Forge," Fred told his brother with a grin, "You know, to let these two work things out." He winked at Harry, who looked clearly unamused and shook his head.

"Can't you two just mind your own business?" Ginny cried exasperatedly, pulling her wand from her pocket. The twins looked at it with mild fear, knowing her reputation with the Bat-Bogey hex.

"Not while you're not being nice to Pot-Pot," Fred said earnestly, tugging out his own wand. "Protego!" He looked surprised when he realised that his shield charm was unneeded.

"From what Ron's told us, you've been treating young Harry here quite badly," George said in an authoritive tone. "You should really be nicer to the boy, he's a hero apparently." Harry scowled at this comment.

"Ron said that Harry only told you that you weren't allowed to go with them so you cracked the wobblies," Fred told her. "You should have forgiven the poor kid by now. It doesn't seem like that big of a deal Ginny, you're being a kid."

"Why does everyone keep telling me that I should forgive you when they know nothing about what went on!" Ginny exclaimed, turning on Harry, the twins looking mildly relieved that she wasn't taking her anger out on them. "It's completely unfair and you're making me look like the bad guy in all this when really, it's you!"

"I," Harry stuttered, holding his hands up in surrender to her. He hadn't sought a fight in the slightest this morning. "I'm trying to stay out of this!"

"If you wanted to stay out of this, you wouldn't have kissed me in the middle of the common room five years ago!" Ginny exclaimed loudly.

"If you said that to try and get us to hit Harrikins, we're not going to," George told her.

"If anything, we're impressed by his forwardness," Fred pointed out. "A lot better than Ron." Ginny scowled at her brothers.

"I... I want to stay out of this today," Harry said awkwardly.

"If you wanted to stay out of this there never would have been a this to begin with!" Harry gulped audibly as red sparks flew out of the end of Ginny's wand. The twins were looking shocked and excited simultaneously.

"Or maybe I should just tell everyone everything," Ginny ranted on at Harry. "Then all the stupid people like these two and Ron would just mind their own business and not expect me to have to do anything, that you should be crawling at my feet begging for forgiveness and then everyone would tell me not to because you're a prick!" She glared at him and stuck out her lip threateningly.

"Sit down, twins," Ginny said in a quieter voice, "it's a long story and you have to promise me that you won't punch him until I finish with it. Now, should we start at after the Quidditch final, or Dumbledore's funeral. Oh I know, how about Bill and Fleur's wedding." Her voice teased Harry with every syllable.

"Gin," Harry said warningly, looking at her cautiously.

"Don't 'Gin' me!" She yelled at him, noticing Ron and Hermione sticking their heads out the door of Hermione's room, watching the scene unfold. "You don't deserve to say anything to me."

"Just get over it!" Harry spat at her. "I'm sure it's not that hard."

"I thought I'd already done that," She told him harshly. "Your words, not mine."

"Obviously you haven't though, not if you still get so worked up about this," Harry told her. "I was trying to protect you; how many times do I have to explain that? I thought you understood."

"Oh, just advance the plot already," She snarled back at him, standing on the other side of the kitchen table. Hedwig and Pig, sensing a bad fight coming flew to refuge in Hermione's room with Crookshanks. "If you've said it one time, you've said it a thousand times. You were trying to protect me, and I didn't need protection. I understood what you were saying, I just didn't agree with it."

"So it meant nothing," Harry stated angrily "Everything else also obviously meant nothing; you know, what I said to you at your brothers wedding, everything I was saying to you at your brothers wedding."

"You were talking shit then, Harry, you know it," She scowled at him, looking murderous. "And if anything, it's more like it meant nothing to you."

"It wasn't shit to me," He said darkly, then paused for a second before lowering his voice, clearly trying to disclude Ron, Hermione and the twins from this conversation. "Well, some of it was. You were right back then, I was wrong. Happy? You were right about it." She met his eyes, he was staring at her openly, willing her to accept that. Her previous anger had disappeared. She knew exactly what he was talking about.

_He looked at her funnily. "Don't give me ultimatums like that," he said quietly after a pause._

"_You've already made your choice, you just don't realise it," She said, flipping her hair over her shoulder and edging towards him. "You need me and I'm coming with you."_

_He examined her for a moment, eyes glazing over for a second before a harsh look came over his face._

"_I don't need you," He stated, and he stormed into the Burrow, slamming the door behind him._

She met his eyes over the kitchen table, and for a brief second, she was in shock; she felt like grinning like a love-sick fool again. He saw her face, and he smiled widely at her sudden lack of anger, and he began edging around the table towards her. Hermione let out a soft "oh" that clearly stated that she thought this was cute or romantic or something, an 'oh' that brought Ginny back to her senses. As Harry reached out to touch her shoulder, she jerked away, her previous anger only heightened.

"Okay, so you say you're sorry and that you didn't mean what you said, and like that's meant to make everything okay or something?" She spat viciously. "What, am I meant to be all like 'oh, I forgive you for just up and leaving me, lets get married and have a bunch of kids with scruffy red hair and green eyes that love Quidditch and we'll pretend this never happened'? C'mon. You just left me, and I felt like shit for so long!" She hiccupped, noticing tears forming in her eyes, but she couldn't stop herself, ignoring the presence of Hermione and her brothers in the room. "Even if I could forgive you for what you said all those years ago, I could never forget how you left me feeling like rubbish for so long. Just an owl would have been nice. But now..." She glared up at him, Fred and George still sitting at the table as they fought over it. "Things have changed since then, I've changed!"

"That you have," Harry said, sounding defeated. He sighed, looking down at his feet for a moment before looking up wearily. She met his eyes angrily; her tiny shoulders arched and jaw stuck out. "You've changed alright. And I don't think you've changed for the better from what I've been hearing about you these days." He didn't bother bringing up their brief almost meetings the past couple of nights, he didn't need to. She knew exactly what he was talking about judging by the fleeting look that crossed her face. The four onlookers looked between the two lovers in mild curiousity. They were both had heaving chests, hoarse voiced from yelling, reddened faces and they, unlike the others seemed to understand what they were going on about.

"Well, that's your fault then, isn't it?" She told him harshly, fists balled. "Maybe I've changed because you stuffed me up." She repeated the exact words that Dean Thomas had used when telling Harry about her new "issues". He seized up painfully at this.

There was a silence, the dripping of the tap painfully loud in the room, the noise of Muggle traffic on the street below a slight hum of engines. Harry stared plainly at Ginny, an unreadable look on his face. She squirmed slightly under his gaze, but did not step down.

"So," Fred began awkwardly, but Harry and Ginny both shot him death glares and he shut up.

"Maybe it is my fault. Maybe everything is my fault," Harry said quietly and Ron groaned audibly, which was then followed by what was clearly the sound of Hermione elbowing him in the ribs. "Or maybe it's yours too. Maybe if you weren't so ridiculously pig headed and stubborn-"

"Hark whose talking,"

"-but that's why I like you anyway," Harry went on as if she hadn't interrupted him. "All those annoying things are exactly why I like you. So I can't blame you for that. I want all them things back. So it can't be your fault. It's mine." He looked up at her earnestly, something which made her even angrier. He wasn't allowed to not be angry or upset. He had to be or she had failed. "What do I have to do to make this, to make everything up to you? Please. This is me begging you Ginny. Anything at all." She met his eyes as they pleaded with her, and she felt her heart momentarily seize up. She looked away from him, unable to bear anymore. It didn't matter if he had stopped being angry, she could still hurt him.

"There's nothing you can do." She told him quietly, shaking her head at him. "It's so far beyond that now. You're too late."

"I don't think so," he told her, his voice shaking with honesty. "You just told me that everything was my fault. If I've stuffed it up, I can fix it."

"You can't fix everything, Harry," she told him sadly after a pause. "No matter how much you want it to, some things just can't get better. You can't fix me." She looked up at him with sadness, her arms shaking involuntarily.

"But I can try," He told her. "Please let me try, Gin."

She shook her head at him, her face slightly screwed up, her voice catching, and that burning feeling at the back of her throat that she hadn't felt for so long was rising up. Grief for something she had thought she was over was bubbling up inside her. What she had left of her childhood innocence after Tom, that cute, puppy love and harrowing first crush had been used up on him. The surreal first kiss that lasted its own eternity and the playful hugs and hand-holding. One of those times that seemed to stretch on forever, but this time in a good way. Gone. It had only just hit her. Any thought of something so harmlessly beautiful as what they had had together at Hogwarts after pining for him for years was now gone beyond everything. And it was his fault in as many ways as it was hers.

"There's no point, Harry. It's too far gone."

They stood in silence, starting at each other for a moment before Ginny looked around, realising that her brothers and Hermione were in the room, she blinked a couple of times, seized her bag and apparated away.

Harry also looked around. The twins, who were still sitting at the kitchen table, looked up at Harry in shock, something he had never seen on their faces after all the time he had known them. Ron's mouth was hanging open and he shook his head as Hermione leant back against the door frame, her head hitting against the wood softly as she exhaled a deep breath. Harry looked at the four of them wearily and pushed his hands up his face in his frustration, unsettling his glasses as he ran his hands through his hair. He spared one more glance for Hermione and the Weasleys, before setting his glasses right and walking slowly to his room, closing the door firmly behind him.

"Well, remind me not to bait those two again," Fred said quietly to his brother.

"You started it?" Ron asked incredulously. "I could have told you how bad an idea that is. That's got to be their worst one yet."

"Good luck with the wedding and getting them to dance," George said softly, letting out a low whistle.

"At the moment, I'll just be happy with photographs," Hermione said sadly. They heard a loud cry of frustration from Harry's room and the sound of him punching a wall.

"I just didn't realise it went so far." George said in amazement.

* * *

A/N: This is probably my favourite chapter so far. Tell me what you think. Also, I'm in the process of revising the first two chapters because I was never happy with them. Please review! At the moment, this story has 3238 hits and 39 reviews. That around on in every 81 people reviewing. Make yourself that 81st person. And also go read my oneshot, called He Sat There Eating Toast. 


	8. Confrontational Realisations

**Fix You**

A/N: Weeeeell... A few things in this seldom read authors note today...

I have no idea what went on with the posting of the last chapter, it came for some people, and it didn't for others, and then I deleted it and reposted it, so those with alerts probably got several emails. That's also why the super quick update, in hope that it fixed it for everyone. Thanks to Goofy-Peach and Because I Need More Space for their emails letting me know that some weren't able to see it, and also for making me feel loved by that they cared. Other thanks go to reviewers Whimsey007 and merliedog for making me feel like that my attempt to write something in depth is working, and for being able to latch onto my bigger picture. It's the biggest compliment (or at least I take it as one)!

I'm loving that people are siding with one or the other, at the start it was Ginny and now everyone seems to be against her. That was exactly what I wanted from this.

Something I didn't really want was for people to be so critical on Ron and Hermione's part in this story, and now I'm realising that I haven't really given them the screen time they need to properly explain their part in this, something that I have tried to amend in this chapter, even though the next two were planned by me to just be H/G. To me, this story is largely about a couple of main things: the inability to escape the past, what love can do to a person, and the limits of friendship, or as I like to call it, the downfall of the trio. No, don't worry yet, hopefully you will all see what I mean by this by the end. Speaking of which, I would say five or so chapters, in case anyone is wondering. It won't drag on forever.

To answer one question about the story, spoiling the ending slightly (so don't read this if you don't want to know something that you probably already do,) yes, Harry and Ginny will get back together. Just not yet. As I said, you probably already knew that, what sort of good H/G story would it be without the cute mushy fluff? The fun of this is in the ride, and progress is being made for H/G. You'll see it for sure by the end of this chapter, enjoy the slight cliffiness!

* * *

**Chapter Eight – Confrontational Realisations **

_February 2nd, 2002_

Harry swilled his drink, watching the ice spin in the amber liquid happily. He scowled down at it before tipping the rest down his throat and stumbling over to the bar for another. It was a Thursday afternoon, perhaps night by now, and Harry was sitting by himself in a lonely, dark corner of the Leaky Cauldron, wallowing in his self pity. Ron and Hermione had both left the previous week for their respective parent's houses, staying up until their wedding. Since his fight with Ginny, which was now not just a row, it was _the_ row, they had both tried to interfere and stay out of it at the same time. Harry had struggled through the past three weeks holed up, drinking more than Mundungus Fletcher did in a year, not showering, barely eating, never leaving the flat, leaving his room only to lay in a stupor in front of the television. Ron and Hermione had watched this silently, both not knowing what to do or say, something which had bothered Hermione greatly.

"_We need to help him, Ron," Hermione cried as Harry stumbled into the lounge from his room one afternoon, looking like death walking, waving peculiarly at them before collapsing onto the couch, snoring loudly, his hand clasped around a bottle half concealed by his jacket; a futile attempt to hide the truth._

"_I don't think that we can," Ron admitted to her. "He needs Ginny's help now, I hate to say it. And I have a feeling that she will need his. It's not likely to be soon since the row, but we just have to give them the time to pull their fingers out."_

"_Ron," Hermione said, fixing him with a steely glare. "He's hurting himself. We have to try stop him behaving like this, we can't just sit around watching Harry waste away."_

"_I think we have to," Ron said. "You know him; he's not going to talk to us about all this nonsense with my sister. We just have to let them be for a bit longer. Just until the wedding, so they have a little time to work the basics out. And if they don't by then, I say that we all step in."_

"_Ron," Hermione had exclaimed heatedly. "By the wedding, he's not going to be okay. We need to help him now. We both know they are far better together than apart, and us trying to manipulate them into a relationship isn't going to work; they're both far too stubborn and hurt. They may not know what's best for them, but we do, and we need to help Harry to make up with Ginny. In someway or another, we need to help them."_

"_Hermione," Ron told her plainly. "We are helping them. It's not going to work with us force-feeding them everything. They just have to figure their problems out by themselves now. We can't make it better for them anymore."_

"_At least talk to Harry," Hermione persisted._

"_He won't listen," Ron reminded her sadly. "Neither will Ginny. We've tried that already."_

They had tried that. The day after the row, after things had calmed down considerably, Hermione had chased down Ginny, who had completely cut Hermione off when she tried to bring up Harry. Ron had been after Harry, who he found in his room, laying apathetically as Ron tried to talk to him, ending with it as Ron talking at him. Like Ginny, Harry hadn't been open for conversation about his previously prospective significant other. He hadn't been open for conversation about anything, pretty much ignoring Ron. When Hermione had returned home, she had also tried to talk to Harry, with no avail. They had both left for their parents' homes the next week unwillingly, but as Ron had reminded Hermione, it wasn't their place to work this out; it wasn't their place to look after Harry anymore; he and Ginny had to work it out for themselves.

So now Harry sat by himself in the back corner of a bar on a Thursday night, the first time he had left the house for weeks, but feeling the need to celebrate Ron and Hermione's leaving, letting him be by himself for what felt like the first time ever. Also, he had cleared out the alcohol supply, a considerable effort considering that after Voldemort's defeat, every man and his kneazle had wanted to buy Harry, Ron and Hermione a drink, so many people had done just that. Ron had then ensured that it was all tested for any trace of poison.

Drowning in his sorrows, Harry looked miserably around the bar, wondering how many of these wizards Ginny knew. Or how many she didn't know; perhaps that was easier to count. The two old men at the bar glanced in his direction, sourly complaining about "those delinquents always coming in here causing a ruckus, leaving the old drinking hole a mess". Harry snorted into his drink, wondering if they would still call him a delinquent if they knew who he was.

Famous Harry sodding wanker Potter. He hated his own name and what it stood for. He was slowly coming to realisations about some things, realisations about life without a Dark Lord looming overhead. He had had thoughts, even expectations of what his life would be like if he had survived the war. He had been let down, and not gently at that.

First off, he had imagined a very different situation with Ginny. A short argument, a little bit of anger from her end, with her then coming around, realising that she was just happy that he had survived and they were given a second chance. Things hadn't really played out that way, obviously, he thought as he signalled for another drink. Part of him was glad; no one could ever possibly imagine that from Ginny and to expect her too was an insult.

Another thing was this whole fame thing that he had going on. Harry had done everything that he had to do in the war. He had lost it all, his parents, the closest thing to, his mentor, his childhood, apparently now the girl he loved and, something that to some seemed nothing, but to him was everything, all sense of normality in his life. He had hoped that people would let him go after the war, that he could stop being a hero, people wouldn't expect him to have to save the world. But according to last weeks _Witch Weekly_, he was the most influential person for 2002 (for the third running), pulling up ahead of Scrimgeour, the national Quidditch coach and the editor of the _Daily Prophet_. He had noted with a snide laugh that Ron and Hermione shared equal 5th and 6th, just ahead of the bassist from the Weird Sisters. Ron's wish from when he had innocently stood in front of the golden mirror of Erised had been answered. He stood above all the brothers; something that he was also realising was not all that it had cracked up to be. He and Hermione couldn't even walk through Diagon Ally anymore without being pulled up and asked for photos. People just wouldn't leave them alone, just as they wouldn't leave Harry be.

The people everywhere just expected too much from him. A smooth transition from childhood miracle to teenage wonder to the man who saved the world, then to fall into a job he knew nothing about and a life in the spotlight; always remembered simply as The Boy Who Lived once upon a time but now did this. Couldn't they just leave him alone? Now reporting what had began as nonsense about him, but then printing what he was slowly coming to terms with what was true, his troubles, worries and life over breakfast. They still hadn't dropped that _Hunting Harry_ thing.

So what if he didn't have a job. It was the silver lining to losing everyone close to you, never having to work unless you wanted to. There was nothing he wanted to do anyway. The things he had wanted in the past now came with strings attached. What was he meant to do, become and Auror and just bow down to the Ministry's wishes, to be their golden boy? Spend his life ridding the world of problems when he couldn't get over his own? Or perhaps Quidditch. The perfect transition, one sort of hero to another. People would rally around him; teams would want him simply for being Harry Potter. Kids would run around in English playing jerseys with Potter printed on the back. He would be worshipped for things that didn't deserve it; those kids would barely have an inkling about anything. They would never understand what it all really meant for him, the implications that the war and all the death and pain had had on his life. It was for keeps. If he lost a game, big deal, they'd win the next. It didn't apply to real life. People would take that as their happy ending; the hero wins the battle and becomes a sports star. It was a lie, no happy ending at all, not for his parents; not for Sirius or Dumbledore. Cedric would be twenty-three, maybe twenty-four by now. Was it a happy ending for him? Would all those people who had died, or the people whose lives had been torn apart get a next time? No.

Harry shook of these depressing thoughts off with a drink and calling for another. It didn't matter. Nothing would feel right without Ginny anyway.

And, as if it were cued, there she was.

He glanced at the bar door as the bar witch poured him another glass. The door opened and a bunch of wizards and witches around his age walked in, and Harry vaguely recognised some from Hogwarts. She was with them, looking slightly pained, only putting on her happy face when spoken to. One of the wizards had a muggle jacket thrown over Healers robes; she must be going out with friends from work. He snorted at the ridiculously predictable melodrama of it all; it could only ever happen to him. She sat down, and her eyes flicked around the bar, and she spotted his corner, knowing it was him immediately. It was always him, and she didn't know how long she could stand it anymore.

As he looked at her, he knew he couldn't stand it anymore. He'd dwelled long enough. As he swallowed his drink and threw down a couple of galleons on the table, only one thing was running through his head.

It was time to act.

How was the problem.

* * *

_February 3rd, 2002_

"Harry?" Ron's head called from the fire the next morning, waking Harry from his spot on the couch. Harry jumped at the sudden noise, and promptly fell off the couch.

"Wassamatter?" Harry asked, groping his pocket for his wand.

"It's okay, mate," Ron smirked. "Very graceful by the way."

Harry rolled his eyes at his friend.

"How's your parents place?" Harry yawned, moving from his spot on the floor to one closer to the fireplace.

"Yeah, good," Ron said distractedly. "Mum keeps bursting into tears."

"Oh, you've grown up so quickly little Ronnikins," Harry said, putting on Mrs Weasley's voice.

"Yeah, something like that," Ron grinned. "What are you doing today?"

"What I normally do," Harry told him. "Nothing."

"We were hoping that," Ron told him. "You're coming to Diagon Ally with us because Hermione says that you haven't got your suit fitted yet or something. Why we are having a muggle wedding is beyond me, but if that's what she wants-"

"You do it. If that's what Hermione wants, you do it." Harry smiled. "Look, I dunno about Diagon Ally, um-"

He was saved making up a rushed excuse by Ron reading his mind.

"Ginny won't be there, Hermione says she's working." Ron told him hurriedly and Harry's face rose a little. "Just us three. C'mon, we'll go visit Fred and George or something after."

"Er, okay," Harry said, thinking he had to get this suit done as some stage.

* * *

"What are you three doing here?" Fred asked later that day as Ron and Hermione walked in hand in hand, Harry dragging his feet behind.

"Hey," Harry mumbled, looking around the near empty shop. "It's been ages since I've been here." He started looking over the shelves carelessly, examining the new products.

"We were getting their suits for the wedding fitted," Hermione told the twins. "Remember, it's muggle attire so that my family doesn't get overly agitated."

"Dad's going to be shocking," George shook his head.

"Probably," Ron grinned, still holding his fiancées hand. "At least he doesn't make a speech."

"Who does them?" Fred asked.

"Us, Harry, Dad," Ron told him. "Some muggle thing, Best Man and Father of the Bride get to."

"Have you done yours yet?" Hermione called over the shelves to Harry who was currently looking at a box entitled 'Lumos-escent lights; for where you can't put your wand'.

"What, my speech? Not yet," Harry said and Hermione looked at him reproachfully.

"You had better say some nice things, Harry," She told him.

"Oh, I know what I'm going to say," Harry told her. "Just haven't worked it all out yet. But don't worry," He added as Hermione glared at him. "I promise it will be nice."

"Disappointed in you," George told him, and Harry rolled his eyes and grinned.

"I didn't say it wouldn't be amusing," Harry told him. "It'll be the best speech ever once I'm through with it. Just remember what you said on Christmas," Harry told Hermione.

"What did I say?" She asked him as Ron examined the latest versions of the Canary Creams.

"That I like making over-impassioned speeches or something," Harry told her. "Now I just have to get you guys a present."

"Us too," George told him. "Honestly, what would you two like anyway? A book on Quidditch?"

"Thanks for the idea," Harry laughed, picking up a box of 'Kidnapping Cufflinks; handcuffs when you need them' as Fred rolled his eyes. Harry examined the box he was holding for a moment before a glimpse of an idea popped into his head. It was mildly illegal, but it could just help solve his problems with Ginny. "Um, look, I think I should go," Harry went on suddenly. "So, er, I'll see you all soonish." He rushed to the door.

"Harry Potter?" Ron, Hermione, Fred and George heard a young female voice ask as Harry stepped outside the shop. "Look everyone, it's Harry Potter!"

"Are you drunk at the moment? I heard that's what you do these days."

"Can I have an autograph?"

"Poor kid," George said affectionately as they watched through the shop window as Harry struggled through the people who had flocked to him at his name.

"I'm surprised that he hasn't just apparated away," Hermione said as Harry fell out of their gaze and mixed into the mostly female crowd.

"He'll realise that he could have done that just after he's got away from them," Ron scoffed.

"I'm just surprised that the paper still hasn't found out where you lot are living yet," Fred laughed.

"Technically, the flat is owned by a muggle named James Black," Hermione told the twins. "So they hopefully shouldn't be able to track us down, and this way we don't have to worry about any secrecy charms or anything.

"Her idea of course," Ron pointed out, kissing Hermione's cheek.

"Well, aren't you two the cutest thing since Pygmy Puffs," Fred said in a baby voice. "How long 'til the big day now?"

"Er," Ron said, unsure, "the 26th?"

"23 days," Hermione told them with a pointed look at Ron.

"At least he knows the day," George told Hermione. "Mum's birthday is a completely different issue."

"Harry seemed good," Fred said after a moment of staring out the window as passersby returned to their shopping; Harry must have disappeared.

"Today he is," Ron said. "He's probably just happy that we've left him alone. He was a complete mess when we were still there. Never left the flat."

"Maybe Ginny went to see him," Hermione pondered.

"They've made up?" The three brothers questioned at once, staring at Hermione as if she had all the answers.

"Honestly, how would I know?" Hermione shook her heads at them. "They wouldn't tell me. If they had, it would explain the not horrible mood, but I'm sure that if they had he would be ridiculously happy."

"Maybe he's just found a way into tricking her into talking to him," George said.

"More likely," his twin replied. "Have either of you two seen Ginny anyway? We haven't seen her since the row."

"Yeah, she came home for lunch with Mum last week," Ron told them. "She seems fine, even when Mum wasn't in the room she was alright. I tried to bring up Harry and she ignored me, but otherwise..." He trailed off.

"I'd expect her to be worse than he is," Fred said. "What with all that stuff she was saying about how he left her abandoned and stuff."

"Maybe she's just better at hiding it," George said.

"Or she might have found another way to cope," Hermione said.

"Like what?" Ron asked her.

"No idea."

"Whatever's going on with them, we're still telling everyone everything at the wedding," Fred said. "Either they work it out before then or everyone forces them to work it out after."

* * *

_February 4th, 2002_

Harry knew what he was doing now. He had been struck with the idea the day before at Fred and George's shop and had spent the past day getting it ready. It was all set. He knew what he would need to do to get Ginny back. Or more like what he needed to do to get her to just hear him out with everything that he had to say, a way to sit her down and tell her everything he could to try and make her just see where he was coming from. If all went to plan, he would be a happy man. However, as it was Ginny, he didn't expect it to go to plan at all. Now he just had to find her.

She'd turn up.

Harry looked around the bar he was in. She always came here on Saturdays, one of the things he had noticed about her since New Years Eve. She had her routines, arriving at a bit before nine, leaving at any time between twelve and three, normally one on the dot if she was leaving with someone, which Harry thought had been the case more often than not. However, she was going to be leaving a lot earlier tonight, and she didn't get a say in that. Harry checked his watch, seeing that it was a bit past eight-thirty. She would be here anytime now. He headed over to the bar for a drink to calm his nerves, then walking to over near the toilets, a place where he could see the door, but the people coming in were not likely to notice him.

Now it was a waiting game. She would come in a bit before nine.

And she did, as if it were clockworks. At a time that Harry noticed by a glance at his watch was exactly ten to nine, the bar door opened and Padma Patil entered, followed by her twin Pavarti, Ginny and then Lavender Brown. Plan Kidnap Ginny Weasley was now in motion.

Harry downed the rest of his drink, putting his glass down on a nearby table, skirting around where some people were playing snooker and approaching where the four girls had taken seats by the bar. As he neared them, he heard Pavarti ordering drinks and Ginny speaking to them.

"-Well, I'm busy working the next two weekends, and of course it's Ron and Hermione's wedding the weekend after that which is exciting I guess," Ginny was saying to the girls.

"Ha, I'm not going," Lavender told her as Pavarti handed her a drink. "As if. Hermione hates me."

"C'mon, she doesn't hate you, and besides, you shared a dorm room with her for six years," Ginny scolded her. "You were invited, you RSVP'ed, you have to come. Plus, you have to help save me from my family and-"

"The Best Man?" Pavarti said, seeing Harry approaching them over Ginny's shoulder. Ginny huffed and nodded at this, sipping her drink.

"Speaking of him, Hi Harry, we figured we'd be seeing you soon" Lavender told him, also noticing over Ginny's shoulder.

"What?" Ginny spun around and saw Harry, steely faced standing behind her. He gripped her upper arm tightly and began dragging her towards the door.

"Harry?" Pavarti asked loudly as he ignored them.

"What... what are you doing?" Ginny whispered to him, clearly alarmed as he dragged her to the door. "Let go of me, what do you think you're doing?" He was gripping her arm tightly, but that wasn't what was making her skin tingle.

"Don't cause a scene," He told her serenely as she struggled against his grip.

"Let go of me," She demanded huffily as Harry pulled her out the door and out into the cool night air. "I have no idea what you think you're doing, but you are going to let me go right now."

Swallowing and ignoring this, Harry gripped her arm tighter, and with a neat pop apparated them both to his flat.

"Honestly, Potter," She growled as they arrived in the dark kitchen. He frog marched her like this over to the couch and he then let go of her. She fell to the couch unceremoniously, massaging where Harry had been holding her. Quickly pulling his wand out of his pocket, he waved it a few times. Ginny got up, glared at him for a moment, and then spun on the spot, clearly trying to apparate. She pulled out her own wand when this happened.

"Really, what are you trying to do?" She demanded him, pointing her wand. She marched over to the door, grabbed the handle and twisted, to no avail.

"Alohamora," She said, flicking her wand at the door. She then twisted again, getting the same results. He took his coat off, laying it over the back of the couch.

"Unlock the door," She told him, pointing her wand straight at Harry's face, half-visible in the moonlight. He just looked at her.

He had planned for this. He had locked all the doors and windows, prepared the anti-apparition jinxes, locked up the brooms and floo powder, cast silencing charms so the neighbours would know nothing, and told the owls only to take letters from him until he said so. She was trapped. He had planned for this, and now he didn't know what to say as she stood stuck in his flat, beautifully angry, illuminated by the moon and hating him.

"Let me out!" She yelled at him. "Unlock the door now, Harry." She jumped up on the couch, holding her wand against his face, looking up at him furiously. She stared him down as he took a few steps backwards, making a distance between them.

"Do it, Harry, you know what my bat bogey's are like," She yelled again. "UNLOCK THE DOOR!" As she was about to shout the incantation at him, she felt her wand fly out of her hand; it flew in a perfect arch and he caught it, pocketing it. She got up again, this time running into Ron's room, looking to see if he had left his broom there. He hadn't. Needlessly, she ran back out and tugged on the windows around the flat, knowing she was too high to be able to get out anyway. She heaved, knowing that it was useless, but not wanting to face him, knowing she was stuck here with him. She gave one final tug before spinning on the spot and facing him.

"What do you want from me?" She asked calmly, with only a slight quiver in her voice. "What do you want?" He said nothing, just staring at her, his face unreadable.

"What do you want?" She half yelled and took a step closer to him. "WHAT DO YOU WANT?" She stormed up to him and made a feeble swipe for his wand. He pulled it out of her reach easily, stepping back from her.

"WHAT DO YOU WANT?" She screamed, stepping back up to him, giving him a hard shove in the shoulder, fists flailing at him. He copped it for a moment before seizing her by the wrists, blocking her attempt to knee him in the groin with his own leg and forced her backwards and back onto the couch. Harry stepped back from her, visibly shaking but not saying anything. He looked down at her; slightly scared. He didn't know what to say to her now; everything that he had intended to tell her had escaped his head. He opened his mouth, but then closed it, his voice failing on him.

"Oh," She said, coming to an ugly realisation. It was sickening, but she realised that it fitted. "Oh. I know what you want." She stood up and shrugged off her jacket, sliding her boots off too. "I know what you want. I know exactly what you want, and it's exactly the same thing that you wanted from me four and a half years ago." She pulled her jumper over her head, leaving her standing in jeans and a little white singlet.

"Well?" She asked him after a moment of silence. "It's what you want, isn't it?" He looked at her, gaping like a fish again. "I know exactly what you're thinking, 'Ginny's turned into a slut, hmm, that gives me an idea or two'." She slid off her jeans, the goose bumps on her arms and legs catching in the moonlight.

"This is exactly what you want, isn't it, Harry," She told him, staring at him as quivered in front of her. "Isn't it?" He stood stoically, staring down at her face.

"C'mon, you can talk you know," She spat at him, the back of her throat seizing up uncomfortably. "Speak up, just do what you want. I promise I won't tell Ron." She snorted at this thought. "Like he'd listen to me over you, anyway. My entire family loves you; they'd think you were a champ right now."

"G- G- Ginny," He muttered, unable to tear his eyes away from hers.

"Geez, Harry," She spat at him, tears streaming down her face now. "Didn't take you this long last time," She pulled off her singlet, standing in front of him in only her underwear. "What are you waiting for?" She stormed up to him, attacking the buttons on his shirt, kissing his neck and chest blindly as she began working it off. He resisted slightly, unable to fight her, just staring at her.

"This is the only reason why you ever liked me anyway, isn't it?" She asked him, her voice catching in her throat painfully as began working on his belt. "Because you wanted something. Well, ha ha, you tricked me into thinking that you actually liked me, good job Harry, what an achievement."

"D- Don't," He told her, seizing her hands as she flung his belt to the floor and lowered herself harshly to her knees as her hands groped him through his jeans.

"Oh," She sobbed at him, her face shining. "Just want to screw me and get it over with. Well, if it's what you want Harry. You get whatever you want, don't you, because you saved the world and all the rest of that. So now everyone does what you say because you're a freaking hero. So go on then" She attempted to pull his shirt off his back, but he stopped her. He leaned over and grabbed his coat off the couch. He pulled her arms through the holes as if he were dressing a small child as she sobbed and sniffed. He did up the buttons carefully and manoeuvred her into a sitting position on the couch. She seized a pillow, gripping it tightly in an attempt to stop her tears.

"What?" She shuddered. "Feeling guilty? Have you only just realised that you ruined my life or something?" He did up the buttons on his own shirt shakily. "Or what, feel like you're taking the cheap way out? Feel like you need to earn it or something?"

He stood in front of her, not meeting her eyes, but his jaw set, his face firm.

"Gin," he began wearily.

"What now?" She asked him pathetically. "Oh, let me guess, you're gay or something?"

He looked up at the roof, one million and one things running through his head. Was this what he had really reduced her too? She had none of that fighting spirit she once had. Broken and defeated, she hiccoughed up at him, eyes bloodshot and sniffling, breaking his heart in a way he never realised that she could.

"What do you want?" She asked him one final, miserable time. "If not that, what do you want from me?"

He looked around the moonlight flat, terrified, finally stuttering out something, and shocking not only her but himself too.

"Ginny," He said hoarsely. "Would you marry me?"

* * *

A/N: So hmm, we like a bit of that? Reviews appreciated to the nth degree. This is, I have to say, my favourite chapter so far. However, next chapter is THE chapter for this fic, so it may take longer than it should with me on holidays, because even though half written, I NEED to get it absolutely perfect. 


	9. Could I Be You

**Fix You**

A/N: Angst angst angst. Your reviews rock my world insanely. I'm glad of what everyone is asking/bringing up because they were all the things that this chapter addresses. This is _the_ chapter, so it's taken a bit for me to be satisfied with this. Enjoy guys; all of your love is loved.

This is a birthday present to my sister Steph, who turns 21 on Saturday! Harry birthday Stephy, and I hope you enjoy the new chapter even though I know you've already read half!

And the length? I just couldn't bear to break it up in two. I did change some bits an I have removed some of what I was intending to be here to next chapter, but it seems okay.

**Could I Be You**

* * *

"_Let's compare scars, I'll tell you whose is worse," – _Rise Against, Swing Life Away

"_Some wounds run too deep for the healing"_ – Albus Dumbledore, OotP, p735.

"_During the struggle  
They will pull us down  
But please, please  
Let's use this chance  
To turn things around  
And tonight  
We can truly say  
Together we're invincible"_ – Invincible, Muse

* * *

"_What do you want?" She asked him one final, miserable time. "If not that, what do you want from me?"_

_He looked around the moonlight flat, terrified, finally stuttering out something, and shocking not only her but himself too._

"_Ginny," He said hoarsely. "Would you marry me?"_

* * *

"What?" She asked him clearly shocked. She was wrapped up in Harry's coat jacket, half naked in her seated position of defeat on the couch. "What are you on about Harry? Talking nonsense because you feel bad?" She looked up at him harshly. Perhaps Voldemort had managed to get a stray hex in that had somehow addled his head.

"No I'm not," He said quietly, looking up at her shyly. "Marry me. Please."

"Why?" She asked him angrily, still hiccoughing.

"Why not?" He asked as if it were simple.

She gaped at him for a moment. "I know what you are saying that for, why you are asking me that, I know," She looked up at him, a slight glare on her face. "Always wanting to save someone, aren't you? You feel obliged."

"It's not like that," Harry told her self-consciously. "I want to."

"No you don't," Ginny muttered. "Why would you?"

"Is it too hard to believe that I care about you?" Harry asked her with a sad smile, running a hand through his messy black hair. "Because I do. More than anything."

She rolled her puffy bloodshot eyes at him. Nonsense, it was all nonsense. Of course he didn't care; he just liked to say that he did. Nothing had changed. Four years ago he had spurted out awkward words of love with a goofy grin, before shooting her down and leaving her lonely, hurt and empty. Now it was the same thing. What did he expect from this weak marriage proposal? Did he expect her to break down, say yes and tell him that she loves him, and then things would be perfect, all issues forgotten? Sure, they had a past, and as much as she hated it, she had lingering feelings for him; feelings which she knew had transformed themselves into contempt. But what next? There wasn't enough to go on. What exactly did he want from her? Her question from mere minutes ago remained unanswered, something hanging in the air, lingering over the conversation.

"Is it?" He pressed her after a moment of silence. "Is it too hard to believe?  
She looked up at him imploringly.

"I still don't know what you want," She told him calmly, hiccoughs having subsided.

"What do you mean?" He questioned rapidly, fidgeting slightly on the spot, toes fiddling with the corner of the rug. "I just asked you to marry me, surely that speaks for itself?"

"Not in this case," Ginny told him fiercely. "I'm sure that you have your other reasons for asking me to bloody well marry you, Harry, reasons that you don't want to share around, noble reasons I bet. What do you really want from me?"

He sighed, falling on the couch in an attempt to calm his nerves. He was now sitting next to her, now able to avoid her eyes. "Everything."

"Well, that's a bit much to ask, isn't it?"

"Not really," Harry said quietly, not looking at her. "I just want you. You're everything to me. You're everything without trying. You're everything by just being you."

"Shucks," She said sarcastically. "You really don't have to pretend, Harry. I know you don't want to marry me. You just say that because you think you're supposed to. You don't have to pretend, and you don't have to lie to yourself."

"Trust me, I'm not," He said in a small voice. "I've known it for years."

"So if I'm your _everything_," She said to him, drawing out the last word. "And you've known it for years, how come you've never bothered to say?"

"I'm not very good at this sort of stuff," Harry explained. "Just ask Hermione, apparently I'm almost as bad as Ron. I'm saying it now, if that helps."

Ginny shook her head at him. Harry wasn't facing her; seemingly barely able to say these things to himself, let alone to confess it to her. "It's not good enough. The damage has been done."

"But surely we can just get over that?" Harry pleaded her. "Stuff happens, but we can get over it."

"Get over it?" Ginny laughed sadly. "I told you back then that I wouldn't be waiting for someone who doesn't need me in their life, and as I've told you before, I haven't."

"Obviously," Harry said, sickened. "Quite obviously you're just looking for someone who can replace me for a night. Someone who needs you or whatever it is that you're searching for." He spat the last two sentences, his voice full of venom, hating both himself and what she was doing to herself.

"Don't be like that with me," Ginny snarled, getting up off the couch and standing in front of him so she could see his face; his coat dangled around her hands, hanging to a little above her knees and looking like an oversized dress. Her face was blotchy with her dried tears, but she had composed herself slightly, or as much as she could when standing in only her underwear and a jacket that Harry had forced upon her.

"I'll tell you how I see it," Harry said to her defiantly.

"Well, you see it rubbish then," Ginny smiled derisively. "I don't know when you got so cocky; perhaps it was the whole saving the world thing, but I most certainly am not looking to replace you in anyway. I learn from my mistakes." She smiled sarcastically at him.

"You are trying to replace me," Harry said, shaking his head and ignoring her grin. "In one way or another. Maybe you don't realise it yourself, Gin, but I told you that I didn't need you in my life so instead you look for someone who does. I hurt you, and you're trying to get revenge on me or make yourself feel better about it." Green eyes met disdainful brown ones as he struck a nerve.

"Well," She said huffily after a brief pause. "Perhaps I wouldn't have to if you hadn't just up and left me!"

"And now we're back to the start," Harry laughed at her, shaking his head. "We- we just seem to keep going around in circles, don't we? We're just saying the same stuff over and over."

"Well, you're not helping it" Ginny told him indignantly.

"Neither are you," Harry told her angrily. "Ginny, you just yell at me and not even bother to hear me out!"

"Why should I bother?" She asked him fiercely, jaw set in a painful glare. "I know what you're going to say, you were trying to protect me. And you know exactly how I'm going to respond to that, so really, why bother?" His eyes darkened. "No matter how much we try, we're not going to work this out; we're never going to be able to work out all these stupid problems and issues, no matter much time you spend or how much you want to fix it. I don't want to even make the effort of going through the motions of trying, especially when we just keep going around in circles as you put it. So can I go now?" She looked towards the door, hoping that somehow that was enough for Harry, so he would swish his wand and it would spring magically open. It remained closed, silence resonating around the dark room.

Harry shook his head at her. Maybe it was just because of her anger, but she was profusely refusing to see it from his point of view. It was time he told her. It had gone on long enough, and he knew that it was the time to just be painfully honest and put it all out on the table. He was going to get hurt either way. But if he just told her the entire truth about what was running around in his head, perhaps that would leave him able to salvage something from the ruins of the past, preferably a relationship. He just had to be ridiculously honest, no matter how much that put him out.

"Sit for a bit," Harry said, motioning at the coffee table. She just glared at him. "If you just listen to what I have to say and you still want to leave, I won't stop you."

"I don't want to hear it, Harry," Ginny moaned quietly.

"But you have to," Harry told her confidently, fiddling with his wand, which he was still holding. "I won't let you go until you do. Just listen and try to accept what I'm saying, even if you don't agree with it. Just listen and try to accept that I think this way, and no matter how much I wish I didn't, that's how things go for me. And after that, if you still can't see what I'm trying to say, well, I can't make you stay. Just sit and listen." He looked at her breathlessly, awaiting a response. It seemed good enough for her. She sat on the short glass table directly in front of him, fiddling with the buttons on his coat, looking at him but not quite meeting his eyes.

"Okay," Harry said, sounding pleased. "Okay." She rolled her eyes at him.

"Is that it?" She asked him sardonically.

"Don't be silly," Harry told her, smiling a little. "It's just... this is hard for me, Gin. I don't talk about stuff like this. But you have to understand." He swallowed, and reached out, putting his hand on her left knee. She shuddered slightly, but didn't force him away. She knew it was time to listen. She'd had enough. Ginny knew she couldn't just shout at him every time she saw him, she knew that there was only so much she could do, she knew that she couldn't just hate him passionately forever. It was time to listen; time to let him just try, even if he was just being stupid and it all came to nothing. It just had to be resolved. Not over, but resolved. Maybe they could make a truce of sorts; maybe they could be civil at least for everyone else's sake.

"I... I know what you're saying in all of this," Harry told her quietly, sounding pained to say this, letting the darkness of the room wash over him. "I can really understand why you're so angry with me, because the truth is I deserve it."

"You're not saying anything new," Ginny told him impatiently, tapping her foot on the floor in spite of herself.

"I'm trying," He snapped back, then paused for a second. When he spoke again, he stared at his feet, his voice tender. "Sorry for that. It's just hard and I'm trying. I'm trying." He glanced up at her, and she nodded at him understandingly, trying to act how she knew she should in comparison to how she was used to. Slightly encouraged, he went on. "You see, the thing is that I do deserve you to be angry at me. I don't want you too, but you have the right to be. What I did to you was wrong, but do you have to understand where I was coming from back then."

"That I don't," She admitted to him quietly.

"Have you ever wondered?" Harry asked her. "Why I was suddenly so horrid, I mean? It's not like it just came from nowhere."

"I just figured you were being a prick," She laughed quietly, realising how stupid her reasoning sounded when voiced out loud.

"I was," He told her, smiling sadly. "Not on purpose though. I didn't want to be like that and I didn't mean to hurt you. I just needed to know you were going to be safe, that you were going to make it through the war alive."

"There was never any guarantee on that," She told him, sourness coming back into her voice. "My whole family is in the Order, I was in danger just by that. And Snape and Malfoy both knew that we were dating at Hogwarts, so of course they would have told Voldemort. I don't know how breaking up with me was ever going to take the target off my head. All it did was hurt me, Harry."

"I know that," He told her simply as she glared at him. "I'm not stupid, of course I know that. I knew it then too, but I still had to do it."

"Then why did you do it?" She asked him softly.

"It just made me feel a bit better about everything, thinking that you weren't in as much danger," Harry told her. "I hated it so much, but it made me feel like you were just that bit safer. And that's all I care about, Gin." He looked at her wistfully as she sat there confused.

"I don't know how that works," She told him rapidly, sounding irritated. "I don't understand how you thought I'd be a bit safer by hurting me. How I'd be safer by being slightly detached from the war at all. It was never going to work. I just can't see where you're coming from with this." She stared him down breathlessly.

Harry sighed loudly. He knew what she was saying. He knew it made so much more sense than what he was saying himself. But somehow, that didn't work for him.

"I..." He began slowly, sliding off the couch and kneeling in front of her, looking up into her tearstained face earnestly. "I knew that it wouldn't. I just had to know... that I'd done all I could to keep you safe. It was the only thing that kept me sane through the war, knowing that I'd done everything possible to keep you out of harms way. It's like I told you after Dumbledore died, I couldn't live with myself if it was your funeral I was sitting at and I knew it was my fault."

She nodded at him. "I can kind of get that." She told him patiently, seeing vaguely where he was coming from. She had always assumed it was about her, that he didn't think she should be anywhere near the war because she was too young. That's what her family had always been like anyway, but she was now beginning to realise that it was him. It was what he needed to be able to live with himself and get what he had to do done.

"Everyone around me dies," Harry told her with a sad laugh escaping him. "It's a bloody crude way to put it, but everyone I get close to dies. My parent, Sirius, Dumbledore, even poor bloody Cedric! It's what I expect now," He paused for a moment. "I didn't want that to be you."

"But it was okay if it were Ron or Hermione?" Ginny asked him half-heartedly, fighting herself not to hug him, to comfort him in some way and tell him that things weren't like that anymore. "They were expendable?"

"They had each other," He told her, staring straight into her eyes. "I knew they would be fine, but you..." He trailed off

"So-" Ginny began angrily.

"No, no, I know that you can more then take care of yourself," Harry cut her off with a grin, knowing exactly what she was saying even though she had barely opened her mouth. "Merlin, I know that. It's one of the reasons that I... love you so much. You're so strong. It's all me, I just that I had to feel like I was doing something."

"That's just you," Ginny murmured to him, not taken aback by his confession. "You and your saving people thing."

"My saving people thing," Harry repeated, smiling and nodding. "I honestly can't help it."

"I know," She told him sadly. "It's just you." They sat in silence for a brief moment, the sound of the muggle street below and the tick of the clock the only thing breaking the tense quiet.

"But before you left," Ginny asked him. "What happened before, at Bill and Phlegm's wedding,"

"When we had sex," Harry said wryly. Ginny snorted.

"Yeah, that," She said awkwardly. "Why did you do that?"

"Why did I what?" He asked her sneakily. "What did I do? You were there too. You did just as much as I did." He grinned slyly.

"Don't be a smart arse," She told him harshly, rolling her eyes at his immaturity but holding back a blush herself. "Why did you lead me on like that, making me think that you were letting me come with you? I mean, by what you just said just then, I can understand a bit why you didn't let me come with you lot, I can understand your whole need to leave me out of it, even if I don't agree with it. The thing is though, why did you make me think that you were letting me?"

"I didn't think that I was," Harry told her. "I thought that you understood all that back then."

"So you came out with all this stuff about you loving me in hope that I'd stick around and wait for you?" Ginny asked him, eyebrows raised.

"No," Harry told her, looking away from her. He was still kneeling in front of where she sat on his coffee table. "I wouldn't expect you to have done anything. I just had to tell you."

"Well, it would have been a lot easier on me if you hadn't had," Ginny told him.

"I had to tell you," Harry repeated plainly.

"But surely you knew that when you came back I'd feel used and be furious?" Ginny asked him with a forced calm. He sat quietly for a moment before replying, not looking at her still. "That I'd be angry at you for lying and for making me feel like crap?"

"I had to tell you," He began, clearly not knowing how to tell her exactly what was going on in his head but needing to express it at the same time. "Because I didn't think I'd be coming back. I just had to make sure you knew... how I felt I guess."

She looked at him dumbfounded, meeting his eyes with that stare that made her feel like she could see right through him. A whole slew of things just clicked into place for her, majority of what he'd done before the war and his explanations all slid together in what seemed to be a seamless way, as did a lot of his more recent off hand comments. He thought he was going to die, he thought Voldemort was going to kill him. He spent four years thinking he was about to die at any moment, but he had gone about business as usual, going out to save everyone on a daily basis. She knew now. He had thought that all those things he said to her would be forgiven after he died, knowing that after his death she would go on able to remember their time together fondly and have no regrets, able to move on with her life. He had wanted only the best for her after what he saw as his imminent demise. She reached out to where he remained kneeling in front of her, running one of her petite hands over his forehead and through his hair, holding his hair out of his face tenderly and revealing his now slowly fading scar, trying to find some comfort for him, trying to let him know that she couldn't blame him nearly as much as she had been anymore. He'd faced the unknown with bravery, fighting to save the world because it was the only thing he really knew how to do.

"I wrote letters," He told her softly. "Four of them, one each to Ron and Hermione, one to everyone in general and one to you. I told Hedwig to deliver them if I well, died. They're still in my trunk somewhere, you can read them if you'd like." He looked up and met her eyes awkwardly.

"One day," She told him quietly as he looked back at his feet. "Maybe one day. I'd like that." They sat there in silence, staring at each other, Harry's hand lingering on her knee, Ginny's in his mess of hair. That was then she knew without a doubt that he cared for her. He had cared all along, and she had just denied it to herself because it was easier. It was a lot more simpler to hate him then to know the truth and have to struggle with the honest reality of it all.

"So friends then?" Ginny asked him quietly.

"Friends?" He asked her, clearly bewildered. "Just friends?"

"We can't be anything more," She told him. "You know it would never work. Even if we've partially resolved all this stuff, things will never be like they used to. Even if I can't force myself to hate you for the past, even if you want it to be so much more, things aren't they way they were before."

"I know that," Harry told her, pulling his head back away from her and moving his hand off Ginny's leg. "Things could be better though." His eyes pleaded at her, his lip stuck out a little, looking much younger than he was. "We won't have what we used to, but we could still have something amazing, something that could be better."

"Can't we just be friends?" She asked him imploringly.

"I can't just be your friend," Harry told her. "If I'm going to be honest with you and myself, something that I am really trying to do at the moment, just to tell you everything that I'm thinking, I have to tell you that I could never just be your friend. I can't pretend that I don't care about you like that, that I don't want to marry you and spend the rest of my life with you."

"Why not?" She asked him, running her hand over her cheek and wiping away her tear tracks and the smudged makeup. "Can't you pretend? Just think back to when you were fifteen and thought of me as nothing more than Ron's baby sister. Sometimes, it doesn't have to be all or nothing."

"You're right," Harry told her forcefully. "It has to be all."

"Just when I was thinking that we were sitting down, having a valid, civil, mature conversation," Ginny said to him, anger striking up yet again, "You come out with that. So very macho of you, wanting to control the world."

"It has to be all," Harry told her. "Because I could never settle with anything else. If you say that it can't be all, I'll spend the rest of forever chasing you around and trying to make it all. I need you."

"You didn't need me when you were seventeen," Ginny reminded him, harshly, but feeling herself crumble slightly at his words.

"I was talking rubbish," Harry told her with a sour laugh. "We both know that."

"Still, I have to say that that did have quite a profound effect on me," Ginny said quietly.

"Don't," Harry told her, dread filling his stomach. He knew this was going to come up. "Don't talk about it. I don't want to hear it. I know what you are trying to bring up, but I honestly don't want to talk about it."

"Well, you were the one who was just going on about honesty," Ginny told him. "Or does that only apply one way?"

"Of course not," Harry replied automatically.

"Well then, we have to talk about this!" Ginny told him forcefully. "If we even are going to be friends we should talk about this! If you want something more, we need to talk about this!" She scoffed at herself. "But that's my fault. I can't believe that I've been even letting myself imagine you coming out with an explanation for everything. I can't believe I've been dreaming and wishing for something to pull me back into that abysmal joyful fluffy bliss that is a relationship with you!"

"You... you want that, then?" Harry asked, his eyes pricking up hopefully.

"The horrible thing is that some part of me does!" Ginny told him, throwing her head back and exhaling deeply. "If going off to save people is part of you, well then I guess I'm just a romantic. I hate it, I really do. And I hate you, but you burst in here and I know that I'm inches away from melting like someone out of one of those soppy muggle novels! And all that I've tried to build up is about to be destroyed and I hate it! I hate that you can do that to me! Can't I just move on somehow?" She looked at him, desperation in her eyes, pleading for him to somehow stop the old feelings arising in her, multiplying every time he looked at her. What she had been despising was now working its way back into something that she sought after.

"Ginny," Harry told her optimistically, "We could have that. We could have everything back."

"Not while you can only talk about what you want to," Ginny told him with anguish, realistically knowing there was no future despite her new-found longing. "Not with all this overlying shit above us that goes so deep we might as well be on the other side of the world. Not while I hate myself for it. And especially not while you see me as some desperate slut!" She rested her elbows on her knees, her head in her hands dejectedly.

Harry seized both of her hands in his left and tipped her chin up with his right so she was looking him straight in the eyes. "I don't see you as some slut, Gin," Harry told her earnestly, honesty ringing in ever syllable. "And I'd like to be able to talk about it; it's just that the thought of you with some wizard makes me feel violently ill." Shadows were cast over his face, the only light source the waning moon outside, his glasses glinting slightly, pale complexion looking slightly ill.

She smiled at him sadly. "I don't think that I can believe that you don't see me as some slut. Especially since I just stripped in the middle of your living room, assuming you wanted sex."

"I don't think you're a slut," Harry told her. "Not at all."

"A whore?" Ginny questioned.

"No," Harry shook his head

"Some skanky slurry?" Ginny asked him again.

"No," Harry repeated, eyes twinkling at her from behind his glasses.

"What do you think then?" She said desperately. He paused for a moment, examining her carefully out of the side of his eye.

"I think you're very messed up."

She swatted his shoulder half jokingly. "This is coming from the boy who's locked me up in his flat, doesn't have a job and gets blind drunk every night." Harry rolled his eyes at her.

"Yeah, well, I've got my own problems, don't I?" Harry said innocently, as she just brought up the major issues in his life with minimal effort. "But at the moment we're talking about yours."

She looked at him carefully. "I thought my problems made you feel sick to the stomach."

"They do," Harry admitted, still holding her two small, soft hands in his large, rough ones. "But on second thoughts about the whole thing, if it's something to do with you, I'd better get used to it. See, I plan on sticking around for a while. So I can't let things that get to me actually get to me. You mean more then that."

"You don't have to," Ginny told him. "Stick around I mean. I'm not sure if I even want you to."

"Well, I'm going to," Harry told her. "Whether you like it or not. So tell me, why?"

"Why?" Ginny asked him thoughtfully, suppressing a grin. "Why."

"Why," Harry said plainly. "Just tell me why you started being all... well, how you are sometimes." It was her turn to roll her eyes.

"Ever since you got back, I've been thinking about that, trying to find some reason in why I've been doing that," Ginny told him. "Honestly, I have," She added, seeing his raised eyebrows. "I just haven't been able to stop myself doing it." She gazed out of the window for a moment, seeing other flats in nearby buildings also lit up, silently wondering if anyone else around them was going through such a sudden change of feelings in the past hour as she was. She had been stemming with hate, anger, contempt, pity, self-righteousness and that flutter in her chest that she associated with Harry interchangeably through the evening.

"Well," Harry pressed her after a few minutes. "Why then? When you're ready of course." She looked at him, and added admiration to that list at his patience.

"It's like you said before, I guess," Ginny told him. "It's hard to be able to just tell you these sort of things, as I don't even properly understand it myself."

"So you just freeze up," Harry nodded understandingly. "And your voice fails. Because it's so hard to be honest when part of you wants to think you're lying to yourself."

"Exactly," She nodded. "You deserve an explanation, so I do want to tell you what's been going on. It's just... well, hard."

"That's good then," Harry said to her, the hand that wasn't grasping her two tucking a lock of stray red hair behind her ear. "Just force it out. It's easier that way."

"It's like this then," Ginny began slowly. "It's like I was saying before. Even if I didn't really believe you about that whole you not needing me around thing, it still got to me." She paused for a moment. "Quite bad. And as you said before, I guess I was trying to replace you."

"I told you so," He teased gently.

"Don't interrupt," She told him quickly. "It's just that... I needed to feel important to someone, to feel like I was making a difference in someone's life. I don't know if that makes much sense to you, but it does to me. I was kind of filling the void you left with other people. And it was almost like I was trying to write off what we had as nothing." She sat there for a moment, waiting for his reaction.

"And I hated myself for it," Ginny continued after seeing Harry's hurt look. "Because it was never anything. Not to me. I'd been obsessed with you for so long, and that's probably why it hurt so much when you left, so I just tried to shun that to the side. So I guess that it's your fault then, in a way" She added.

"I already knew that," He reassured her. "Or I was taking the blame anyway."

"A lot of the time I was doing it to spite you," Ginny told him sadly. "And now I think about it, you probably didn't deserve it. Especially what I've been doing to you in the past month. I'm really sorry Harry." She looked down into his face carefully.

"I know you are," Harry said kindly. "Just don't get yourself caught up in feeling bad about it. It was my fault you were angry in the first place."

She smiled properly for a moment. "It was wasn't it?"

"It was," Harry concurred, just staring at her. "But as you now know, I didn't really intend it in that way in the slightest." They sat in a comfortable silence for a minute.

"Well?" She asked him, getting goose bumps as she felt his gaze on her.

"Okay," Harry said, finally removing his hand from hers, placing his on her lower thighs. "This is what I don't get. Surely you knew you were putting yourself in danger. How come you kept doing it?"

"I couldn't really stop," Ginny told him quietly. "It's addictive, knowing that somehow I was hurting you, even if I felt horrible afterwards. It just satisfied me; knowing that I was getting over you and making you feel as hurt as I had been in the process. Or," She went on dryly, "thinking I was getting over you when really I was just getting more hung up about the whole thing." She met his eyes, seeking acceptance of what she had just got just off her chest, the thing that had been plaguing her for years.

"I'd probably say it was the second more then the first," Harry told her playfully, letting her know he could take that with a grin.

"Probably," Ginny concurred, a spark lighting her eyes. The spark behind her eyes that Harry had been missing since he was sixteen and could openly appreciate every moment of the puppy love they had shared. It was the spark that he had taken with him to war and hadn't returned yet. It was the blazing look she wore when he hugged her; it was honesty, and understanding. It was knowing that they were back to the stage where they could say anything and the other would understand or know there was a reason. It was the foundations of trust being built back up. It was friendship and everything else simultaneously.

"Are you cold?" Harry asked her, running a hand across the goose bumps on her leg. She nodded earnestly.

"A little," She admitted. Harry flicked his wand over the top of the couch, lighting up the fireplace, warmth spreading through the flat. Everything around them was illuminated by the light, casting dramatic shadows across the room and exaggerating both of their features in the fireligt

"You know," Harry said conversationally, letting the warmth envelop him. "You could have been in big danger, you know that? Running off with strangers?" He sounded pained to say that last bit.

"Of course I knew that," She told him simply, placing her hands over his subconsciously.

"Then why?" Harry asked dumbfounded.

"Same reason," Ginny told him. "I just couldn't stop."

"You could have been really hurt," Harry's voice strained, sounding painful. Ginny shook her head at him, knowing he'd be at least slightly pleased at what she was about to say next.

"But I guess I just figured that someone would come save me if I got in any trouble," Ginny told him, smiling at him. "Someone with one of those saving people things might just come back because they'd suddenly realise that they did care about me and wanted to save me from some horrible place that I'd gotten into."

"It wasn't sudden," Harry told her grinning. "Realising that I liked you I mean. It was an excruciatingly long and painful event when I was sixteen that had me fearing your brother more then Voldemort." Ginny laughed at this.

"You didn't have to," She told him. "You could do or say anything and my family wouldn't question it."

"I wouldn't say that," Harry smirked.

"I would."

"Speaking of your brothers," Harry asked her as she picked a strand of short black hair off his shirt. "How on earth did none of then find out about this?"

"About me?" Ginny asked him.

"Yeah," Harry said gruffly. "And about us too. The twins didn't know until Ron and Hermione told them. It's kind of amazing, actually, them not knowing something."

"I just guess that everyone knew I was related to them," Ginny told Harry.

"Yeah, you can tell by the hair," Harry said cheekily, "Just a little bit."

Ignoring him, she went on. "And I guess that also, people don't want to risk making the twins upset. Or any of my brothers for that matter. And anyway," She narrowed her eyes at him, "how did you react when you first found out about this stuff?"

"Got angry, told Neville, Dean and Seamus that they were talking crap, that they should mind their own business and to not talk about things that they didn't know about." Harry said quickly, looking straight into her eyes.

"Now imagine what any of my brothers reactions would be in comparison to yours."

"Oh, yeah, scary thought," Harry said mildly, imagining a whole array of jinxes and hexes on to one poor person who had just told them the truth about Ginny's escapades. "Don't think that would be a good idea; remind me not to be that guy."

"Exactly," Ginny smirked, revelling in how utterly comfortable she felt discussing this should-be touchy subject with Harry, and how weird it was to imagine that just over an hour ago she was screaming at him, and wondering in amazement how all of a sudden it felt right to not hate him as determinately as she had in the past. It was weird, she decided, how natural it felt, and how she could suddenly just drop what she had been feeling because of him. She had hated it minutes ago, but now it was growing on her. But he had always had that effect on her. She had given up on him when she was thirteen and had thought she had moved on but then two years and two boyfriends later she found herself being kissed by him and all those suppressed feelings releasing themselves from that place in her where she hid what she didn't want to acknowledge. Perhaps that place was his. Maybe he held the key; she was somehow unable to hide anything from him. And despite the mass difference in the severity of these problems to the previous ones, he still had that power over her.

Not that that meant a relationship was on the agenda. No, not at all, Ginny thought. If they could work through some of these problems, fantastic, they could be friends, despite his utter reluctance to being only that. It wasn't like they could ever figure everything out; that was impossible, there were just too many problems that added up to one bigger, more painful one. And until they could work out those problems, there was no way that they could be together like that. It was not a possibility in Ginny's books, despite how much she was not so suddenly wishing it could work like that, that there was a spell or potion to make things go the way she wanted deep down, to fix everything. This was just making peace, and she couldn't allow herself to think it could be anything more. The sat in comfortable silence, Harry's hands just above her knees. She ran a hand through the hair on the side of his head before placing it on his shoulder, guiltily lapping up his calming warmth.

"So," Harry said after a minute in which they soaked up the silence, not knowing precisely what to do or say.

"So," Ginny responded. "Stuff eh?"

"Stuff," Harry smiled at her.

"Things are good too," Ginny told him with a smirk. He rolled his eyes happily.

"Where do we go from here?" Harry asked her seriously after another brief silence.

"What do you mean?" She whispered slowly.

"Us," Harry pushed. "You, me. What do we do now?" His eyes looked relentlessly at her, pressing for the response he wanted with every moment.

"Well," Ginny began. "I should probably go home and get some sleep; I have to work tomorrow afternoon."

"You're not going anywhere until we work out what's going on," Harry told her, waving his wand in front of her face playfully, feeling happily foolish and childlike. She made a slight swipe for his wand, causing him to grin widely at her.

"Nothing's going on," Ginny told him, exhaling deeply. "I know you don't want to be just friends, but that's how it's got to be."

"Why?" Harry questioned. "Why can't we be more?" He reached out to her, taking her hands in his.

"You don't want to go out with me," Ginny told him sadly. "I'm the girl that everyone's slept with," Harry shuddered, "And you don't want to go out with me. People will just say 'Oh, I've slept with Harry Potter's girlfriend'. You shouldn't have to put up with that."

"Ginny, have I ever cared what people say?" He asked her, his dark eyebrows mixing in with his hair. "And besides, if those guys are scared of your brothers, their bound to be scared of me." She smiled and shook her head.

"It won't work."

"Is that your best excuse?" Harry asked her plainly.

"There's... there are just too many hairs from the unicorns tail," Ginny told him slowly, having to say it but wishing she didn't. "Just then, we've barely started on all the problems that are in the way and there's so many. We've both got too many issues for it to work."

"It did in the past," Harry pointed out blandly. "We can just try."

"This is now, Harry," Ginny told him. "We've both changed in so many ways and we... we'll just be kidding ourselves. We'll just give it false hope."

"But would you want a relationship?" Harry asked her, eyebrows clenched.

She threw back her head and sighed. "Harry, it just wouldn't work. Let's just cut our losses and be friends."

"But would you want something?" Harry questioned her, letting go of her hands and cupping her face. He tilted her head forward, bringing her eyes to his. "It's like I said before Gin, it's all or nothing for me. And I can't be without you anymore."

"Don't say things like that," She cried softly. "Just don't. We can't do th-"

"In the perfect world," Harry said calmly, cutting her off. "If there were no problems or anything wrong, would you want something? Would you give it a shot? You and me?"

"Yes!" Ginny told him loudly, trying to shake his hands off her face in vain. "But it means nothing, Harry, because we can never be! This time yesterday I hated you, but somehow I've ended up sitting here and hating to say this because I know how bad it's going to hurt! That's what you mean to me, you can do that somehow. You can make me go from a together twenty year old woman to the eleven year old girl who blushed when you entered the room. I'd do anything for you. I'd do anything I could because I love you and I always have! I've just been hiding from it for years, hiding from myself because it's easier to detach myself from... from feeling all this stuff that you provoke with a smile. I don't want to love you so openly that the whole world can see, but I do! And I can't help it because it's you and you're the person that can rule over everything I think, say and do without trying! I really can't help it! And I don't want to anymore because suffering in silence is surely better then admitting that I love you to myself and sitting around knowing I can't have you!"

"You can though," Harry told her, his thumbs wiping unshed tears from her eyes, taken aback slightly at this outburst. "You can have me, you already do. We could try, Gin, we could just try. And sure, it does hurt, but imagine what it would be like if it worked. Just think about it. It's like I said before, you're my everything. You make me feel real, like... like there's some hope for me to do something with my life after Voldemort, like I wasn't alive just to kill him and then I have nothing after that because it's over for me. You give me hope, you're my entire life."

"But," She began.

"No buts," Harry told her. "This is for keeps Gin, it's not like Quidditch or something where there is just a next game, this is forever. This is everything forever. I want to spend forever with you; I want to always be known as yours. I want to do everything with you and not be without you and I only want you in my life. We only live once and I want it to be with you." Ginny's breath hitched in her throat as he tried to explain the magnitude of it all. "You just told me you wanted all of that too, so just... just why not? The problems don't matter, it's the good stuff that does."

"It's just too much," Ginny said, noticing his emerald eyes glazing slightly. "There are too many problems, too many little niggling things for us to ever be happy. All we'd do is fight because we could never get over all the little issues. And it's too painful, it's too much."

"I want to spend my life trying to get through the problems, though," Harry told her plainly. "I'd spend my life with you getting over those, and if we can't, I'll die trying. If we fight, so what? Look at Ron and Hermione! Even my parents hated each other for years and years. I'd spend the rest of my life fighting with you if we could have just one day together being happy because it would be worth it with you."

"It's still too much," Ginny told him wearily. "I wish it wasn't but it is."

"It's only too much because you let it!" Harry told her fiercely as her hands reached up and clutched onto his softly. "Something Dumbledore once said was making the choice between what's easy and what is right. And we're right; you know it. If it hurts, so what, it's like I said, it'll all be worth it if we're together."

"I suppose," Ginny whispered half heartedly.

"It's like Ron and Hermione were saying at Christmas," Harry told her with a small smile. "We're so much better together than apart. And together, I think we could make it through anything. But if it doesn't work,"

"We can at least say we've tried," Ginny finished for him, meeting his eyes with a look that made his day. "We're not going to sit around in ten years wondering what could have been if we had have just given it this shot. No regrets."

"Yeah," Harry grinned so widely that his cheeks hurt.

"Yeah," Ginny repeated, dropping her hands from his and to her side, a satisfied smile on her face. "We'll give it a shot, because you're right, we're better together, so it's worth the entire struggle."

"No, you're worth the struggle," Harry told her happily and she giggled. "Just you."

"So are you going to kiss me now then?" Ginny smiled placing her forehead against his.

"Well, now if you'd like," Harry leant in.

"Wait," Ginny halted him, tugging her head out of his hands and smirking as he stuck his lower lip out, pulling a sad face. "Are we going to tell Ron and Hermione about this?"

"Let's see how long it is before they notice," Harry said, closing his eyes and leaning in again. Ginny pulled away again.

"You know, last time you said that it didn't work out too well," Ginny told him as he opened his eyes, looking slightly put out.

"Well," Harry deliberated, putting his hands on her hips. "Is there any super evil guys trying to kill me at the moment?"

"Probably," Ginny told him. "I'm sure there are plenty of uncaptured Death Eaters who would like to top you."

"But they're just evil," Harry pointed out, grinning. "But we're talking super evil here, Gin."

"Doesn't seem so then," Ginny smirked.

"Well then," Harry grinned, their foreheads falling together again, Ginny's hair forming a red curtain around their heads. "In that case, I'm not going anywhere." He drew out the last word, breathing in her scent.

Both of them smiling so widely it was incredibly awkward, their lips met passionately and they fell into each others arms once again, and the world was how it should be.

* * *

A/N: Weeeeeell? What did we think? Was the fluffyness level enjoyable? They were never going to work out all of their problems, the idea was that there were too many for that, but they can get over their stubbornness, grow up a bit and move on, taking their issues with them and facing them when they need to. Now, I have a feeling that that leaves around two chapters left and epilogues of sorts, of which there may be up to three. Please review! It's just down there! 


	10. All Or Nothing

**Fix You**

A/N: It's approaching the end, and is getting majorly fluffy in this chapter and a lot more still in the next. Thanks to all reviewers! And not trying to sound like a scab, but there is 44 alerts and not quite that many reviews on each chapter (or anywhere near a third of that), so guess what that means, I'm asking everyone to review! So review and you will be loved!

And I know that it's Ginevra.

* * *

**Chapter Ten – All Or Nothing**

Harry woke on his couch with a stiff neck and sore back the next morning, feeling barely rested. However, he rose with a grin, Ginny clutched in his arms naturally. He sighed contently and then felt Ginny stir slightly.

"Wuuh?" She mumbled audibly. "Oh. Oh."

"Morning," Harry whispered in her ear. "Did I wake you?"

"Yeah," She told him, stretching her arms out as far as she could, one hand blocked by the couch, the other by his knee. "It's okay though, I feel surprisingly awake."

"Good," grinned Harry, kissing her behind her ear. "It's pretty late in the morning anyway. Did you sleep well?" She giggled as his wet lips hit her freckled skin.

"Yes, and stop it," She told him.

"I think you're enjoying that though," He told her, sounding very self-satisfied and continuing to do what he was doing. "So I don't think that I will." The fire from last night had died down, and Harry heard what vaguely sounded like it restarting; the back of the couch hid the fire from view of where he and Ginny were lying haphazardly.

"No, Harry," Ginny laughed. "Stop it." He had made his way from behind her ear down her jaw bone and onto her neck.

"Stop me," he teased her gently.

"Harry?" A familiar, yet completely unexpected voice called out. Swearing, Harry shifted grudgingly up off the couch onto his knees, looking towards the fireplace.

"Hi, Hermione," Harry said grudgingly. "What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to see what you were up to," Hermione told him, her head amongst green flames in the fireplace. She was straining her neck to look around the flat curiously. "Is someone here?"

"No," Harry lied automatically; Ginny was on the couch and hidden from Hermione's view. "Just me."

"I thought I heard you talking to someone," Hermione questioned. "And I was going to apparate here, but you put the wards up, and I couldn't floo through either so I'm stuck with this."

"Oh, yeah, err the apparation and floo wards," Harry said, realising thankfully that he hadn't taken them down since he realised that Ginny wasn't a flight risk. "I put all of them up the other day to see if they still worked. Guess they do."

"I still heard voices," Hermione told him, her eyebrows raised at him through the fire.

"Well," Harry said bracingly, walking around to stand in front of her at the fireplace. "I was just talking to myself in my sleep I guess. I do that."

"It didn't sound like you," Hermione said sneakily. "It sounded like a girl."

"Well, it was me okay?" Harry told her forcefully. "Why would I want a girl here anyway, I'd only want Ginny and she hates me."

"I don't believe that somehow," Hermione said with a smirk, noticing something near the leg of the kitchen table. "Hi Ginny, I know you're there." Harry gulped loudly.

"Hi, Hermione," Ginny said, sounding defeated and, as Harry had done before her, knelt up on the couch. She was once again wearing Harry's oversized jacket. "How did you know?"

"Well," Hermione deliberated, a grin on her face as she looked between her two best friends, both of whom were looking simultaneously shocked, embarrassed and pleased with themselves. "Those are your clothes on the floor." They both went bright red, looking at the pile of clothes that Hermione had indicated to.

"Actually," Harry began quickly. "There's a really funny story to that. You see,"

"Somehow I don't believe you Harry," Hermione told him cheekily. "No matter what you may say, I don't think I will." She smiled at him sneakily, making Harry feel very uncomfortable.

"Oh, shut up," Ginny told her best friend, turning a colour that only her family could. "Don't start on him or I'll start on you."

"Why are you here anyway?" Harry asked Hermione as Ginny joined them by the fire, kneeling next to where Harry was sitting cross-legged in front of Hermione.

"Well, I was talking to Ron last night and we decided that we were going to lock the two of you in a broom closet together," Hermione told them vaguely. "But obviously it's not necessary to resort to kidnapping; you two have clearly found a more mature way to deal with your problems." At this, Harry managed to look mildly ashamed.

"Well, actually," Ginny began, smiling. Hermione looked shocked.

"He kidnapped you?" She asked, looking between the two in bushy headed amazement. "That's so cute! Is that why all the wards were put up then?"

"Go away, Hermione," Harry told her shyly, pulling out his wand and sending a sprinkle of water onto the fire. She shook it out of her face at him as Ginny smirked at his behaviour.

"I'm just so happy for you two!" Hermione exclaimed loudly. "Ron will be too. Everyone will be! Let me know when you're telling your mum, Ginny, I want to see her reaction, because that will be one of the funniest things ever!" Both Harry and Ginny's faces paled at this thought.

"About that," Harry said slowly, putting a hand in his hair.

"Well, I don't know about Harry," Ginny said brazenly, "but I don't intend to tell Mum or anyone."

"Oh thank Merlin," Harry sighed in relief. Ginny glared at him suspiciously.

"You don't want to tell them?" She asked him. "Ashamed?"

"No, no, just that your family is scary!" He explained pulling her close to him, her shoulder pressed to his chest heatedly. "Do you have any idea of how much your mum will feed me when she finds out about this? And chances are your brothers will kill me, Gin. I'm all for just putting off telling them for as long as possible." They beamed at each other, gazing into each others eyes happily. Hermione cleared her throat loudly, reminding them both that she was also present.

"Well," Hermione told them slowly after they sprung apart from each other, looking guilty. "Fred and George are going to tell everyone that you _were_ dating after our wedding. So people will start asking questions and talking about you two then, and, as your friend, I advise that you tell everyone the truth at that point."

"Why do they have to ask questions anyway?" Ginny moaned in complaint. "If you and Ron had have just left us alone in the first place and not told the twins then we wouldn't have to tell anyone." Harry nodded his agreement.

"If Ron and I had left you alone, you both would still be moping," Hermione told them exasperatedly. "And the twins' finding out was your fault for fighting in front of them. Despite my previous beliefs, they are not stupid."

"You could have fed them some lie," Harry grumbled. "We never wanted your or Ron's help."

"You didn't," Hermione agreed. "But the two of you just needed a kick to realise that you were going to be happier together than you ever would be apart."

"In that case and I'm not being rude here," Ginny asked Hermione patiently. "Can you leave us alone now, seeing as in however many days until your wedding-"

"Twenty-one,"

"Seeing that in twenty-one days that my family won't leave the two of us alone at all?" Ginny finished. "It's just we still have stuff we need to talk through." Harry shot her an inquisitive look.

"Sure sure," Hermione said happily.

"No, really," shot back Ginny.

"Oh, I was on my way to the Burrow anyway," Hermione told them quickly as Ginny raised her eyebrows at him. "Have to talk to Ron about the seating or something. Just Harry," Hermione fixed him with a steely stare. "Just remember that it's going to be more than just the Weasley's harassing you two about your relationship." Harry groaned audibly.

"What, the Prophet or something?" Ginny asked cautiously. "We could avoid that though, couldn't we?"

"Have fun trying," Hermione smiled sadly. "I'll see you two soon." She whooshed out of the fireplace.

"Would the stupid newspapers actually care?" Ginny asked in amazement.

"Yeah, they seem to like me," Harry told her, looking angry. "In case you didn't know, I've been the subject of a weekly column for about four years now."

"I tried to avoid all conversations on you for about that time, so I wouldn't really know." Ginny replied softly, looking up at him from her spot on the floor next to him, wide-eyed and unsure. "This is good, isn't it? It's the right thing to do?"

"What, us?" Harry asked, peering back down at her, his hair falling into his eyes. She nodded fiercely. "It is, Gin. Why? If it's because of what Hermione was saying about the paper-"

"No, no," said Ginny. "It's just... I don't know if I could deal if we break up. It'd be easier now, just to get it over and done with so it hurts less."

"Then we won't break up," Harry reassured her calmly.

"We're going to fight all the time," Ginny told him. "I know it. There's so many things that we need to discuss, so many things that are going to get in the way."

"Of course there are," he cut her off. "It'll be an adventure, and like I said last night, it'll be worth it in the end. We'll get through it all somehow." He kissed her tenderly and she grinned against his lips, putting her hands to his hair. He moaned into her mouth and they continued in that way for a moment until a cruel idea struck her, and she sprung up off the floor, knowing he was going to hate her.

"Do you have orange juice?" She asked him casually as if they hadn't been in a heated snog session just seconds before. "I'd fancy a glass."

"Ginny," Harry complained, red-faced.

"Yes?" She asked innocently. "Are you going to offer to cook me breakfast or something?"

"If you want," Harry grumbled. "But-"

"Thanks, Harry, you're the best," Ginny smirked, tugging him up off the floor and kissing him quickly. "Bacon and eggs would be great."

Harry scowled at her as she grinned at him and sat down at the table, watching him expectantly. "You little manipulative wench you," Harry said as he searched for a pan in the cupboard. When he turned back around, Ginny had quickly gotten dressed, wearing her singlet and jeans from the night before.

"What was that? Didn't sound like making me food to me."

"I'll get you later," Harry told her, extracting eggs and bacon from the fridge. "Just wait and see, later you're going down."

"I have to work later," Ginny told him as he cracked an egg.

"Oh," Harry said mildly. "That's right. Because you have a job." He said this as if it were an unusual occurrence.

"Most people have jobs," Ginny told him. "Mine means that I have to work on weekends sometimes."

"I mustn't be like most people then," Harry chortled, throwing the bacon in the pan too.

"Only just figuring that out?" Ginny chuckled.

"No," he smiled back.

"You should get a job though," Ginny told him. "You'll drive yourself crazy if you don't."

"It's like I said at Christmas time," Harry replied. "I can't see anything that I really want to do, so I just won't have one. Everyone would want me to work for them because I'm Harry Potter not because I'm good at what ever it is that I'm meant to be doing."

"Get a muggle job," Ginny told him. He shrugged his shoulders. "Or employ yourself somehow. You need a job or at least a hobby to keep you occupied. Or you will go insane."

"Oh yeah, like how I'm a self-destructive alcoholic?" Harry asked half jokingly. "That insane?"

"Kind of," Ginny said forcefully.

"You believe that rubbish in the paper then?" Harry asked her quickly, glancing at her before flipping the food then turning to face her, leaning casually against the counter.

"No," Ginny told him cautiously. "I just think you are going a little off from being by yourself and not doing anything for four months or whatever it has been since the war ended." He looked at her, mildly irritated.

"Well," He began, trying to hide the sourness in his voice but failing like Fred and George in potions. "I wouldn't be, as you put it _a little off_ if you hadn't been driving me crazy."

"I suppose," Ginny said coolly as Harry turned back the stove top. "But you know where I was coming from." He looked at her over his shoulder, looking disgusted and ill. "What I meant from it, I mean."

"Yeah, I do," Harry said roughly, shaking the eggs and bacon onto two plates.

"It's just what we were talking about last night again," Ginny sighed as Harry passed her a plate. "And I can understand if you hate me for it..."

"I don't hate you," Harry said, summoning two glasses, the bottle of orange juice from the fridge and two knives and forks. He kissed her forehead before sitting down. "I just don't like it." Ginny held her knife and fork loosely in her hands, but she didn't start eating yet.

"You've got an out if you want it," Ginny told him as he poured them both drinks. "If you want to get rid of me, now's your chance." She looked up at his half shocked face.

"I would never want to get rid of you," Harry told her softly. "I told you that last night. Do you need to be constantly reassured?"

"Yes," Ginny said bluntly, picking up some food with her fork and putting it in her mouth. "This is really good!"

"Constant reassurance is what you'll get," Harry told her, sipping his juice.

"It would be better if it was greasier though," She told him.

"You like it greasy?" Harry asked her, shocked and she nodded her head vigorously. "I'll take you to McDonald's breakfast one morning." She raised a red eyebrow in confusion. He shook his head and began eating his own breakfast.

* * *

Front page, Daily Prophet, February 21st, 2002

**_LESS THEN A WEEK_**

_Weasley/Granger Wedding countdown: 6_

_With just six meagre days to go until what is likely to be the event of the year, or at least the wedding of the year, the final flourishes are being added to the flowers and the security is being arranged for the upcoming wedding of Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger, who, as everyone that hasn't been living under a rock for the past four years knows are notable for their friendship to wizarding saviour Harry Potter and their input in the war against He Who Must Not Be Named. The _Daily Prophet_, who have been keeping the public updated on all nuptial notes, have managed to get some sneak-peak photographs of both the highly decorated hall that the couples reception will be taking place in but also some exclusive pictures of the ceremony rehearsal that took place last night in St. Brian's Church in Muggle London._

_The reception, which, like the rest of the wedding is taking place in a primarily muggle fashion to ease the magical side onto Muggle-born Granger's relatives is a sight to be seen. As seen by the pictures on page three, it is decorated in pale green, lavender and white, leaving open for debate the colours of the bridesmaid dress and Weasley and Best Man Potter's ties. These colours are both amongst the short list of colours that a source in Madam Malkins Robes For All Occasions reported were being considered by the party. We also have pictures of the dinner set being used, plain white, square plates with light purple and green trimmings, the flower arrangements which feature a wild mix of roses, daisies, lilies, tulips and sunflowers charmed to either white or the purple or green colours being used. The speculated guest list has been confirmed to less than one hundred people and is rumoured to feature Harry Potter (quite obviously), Bulgarian super seeker Viktor Krum, Hogwarts Headmistress Minerva McGonagall, the editor of the gossip rag The Quibbler sub-editor Luna Lovegood, Head of Auror Department Kingsley Shacklebolt and his deputy Nymphadora Tonks (who also, seems to be on the way to the altar with older beau and known werewolf Remus Lupin, also a guest). Speeches have been confirmed by an inside source as being made in the traditional way, one by father of the bride Mr Granger and Best Man Potter._

_Last nights ceremony practise was taken in casual attire and was seen by less then fifteen people, yet photographs have been leaked to the media. Granger and Weasley are shown together in the adjacent picture together just prior to the beginning of the rehearsal, clearly in a passionate discussion over exactly where Weasley should be standing. Present other then the bride and groom were the Granger parents and their young muggle niece Caitlin who is the flower girl, the eldest Weasley brother Bill and his son Robert who is the ring bearer. Also, Head of Magical Law Enforcement Arthur Weasley and wife Molly, are pictured with Granger's best female friend, Maid of Honour Virginia "Ginny" Weasley, a young talented healer and youngest current generation Weasley child, and of course, Best Man, Harry Potter, who has maintained a strong friendship with the entire family of redheads since the age of twelve. This photo of the Weasley parents, daughter and Potter was taken shortly after the conclusion of the ceremony._

_Potter, as usual has been the subject of great debate in the past few months. After the downfall of the dark, Potter has seemingly been unable to move forward with his life, unemployed and seen regularly at seedy parties, depressed and drinking his life away as this paper has reported several times. However, this seems to have stopped in the past three weeks for reasons unknown. We will keep you updated on the Potter issue through our weekly column, _Hunting Harry

_We will also keep you updated on the arising details of the approaching vows, and will run a full cap of this event on Sunday morning, just mere hours after the wedding ends on Saturday night._

_Until then._

"You made the paper," Harry told Ginny late one morning as they sat around the table at Harry's, again eating breakfast together. She had taken to spending most of her nonworking time at his flat, preferring his company to her own. "They called you Virginia though."

"Oh, that drives me insane," Ginny said, rolling her eyes at the paper. "Oh, look it's us two with Mum and Dad." She gazed down at the miniatures waving up at them, noticing the photo Harry and Ginny pretending to ignore each other.

"I bet it does Ginevra," Harry teased, causing her to slap his arm.

"I hate being called that too," She mumbled. "Just as much as you hate me picking on you for being a bum." Harry's unemployment had been a prevalent issue between the two in the past three weeks, one of the things interrupting their otherwise cute coupleness which was sickeningly cute to even themselves. Hermione and Ron had both began to refuse to be with the two at the same time, even though they were both supportive of this born-again relationship. They had, as Ginny predicted, had fights, but both of them found they were able to sit down and just talk it through, and both of them had felt better for this. They hadn't fought over anything too major, but neither wanted to start a fight about something that didn't need to be fought about yet.

"Shut up," Harry told her lightly. "Are you busy today? Working or something?"

"Busy but not working," She told him, pulling the paper to read the article on Ron and Hermione. "I am getting Hermione trashed. Hen's night or whatever the muggles call it."

"Take pictures," Harry advised her. "I've never seen Hermione even a little drunk, after how long I've known her too."

"Way ahead of you," Ginny told him, summoning her bag from Harry's room and pulling out several disposable cameras and showing him. Harry laughed at her.

"Yeah, Ron's stag night thing is tomorrow," Harry told her. "Your brothers, the twins especially have some horrid plans for him."

"How horrid?" Ginny asked, eyebrows raised.

"Er, handcuffs, firewhisky, a vanishing spell on his clothes, whipped cream and King's Cross station," Harry told her, a smirk crossing his features. "So I don't think that pictures are a good idea in this case."

"True," Ginny laughed, getting up and kissing Harry's cheek

"If it's tonight, then we have the whole day," Harry told Ginny hopefully, looking up at her with a grin.

"I wish," Ginny sighed, putting her hand through his hair. "But Hermione and me are going to some muggle spa thing today and getting manicures and stuff."

"Oh, fun," Harry scoffed. "Enjoy that."

"I can try," Ginny laughed.

"So when are you going then?" Harry asked her as she took her dishes to the sink.

"Well, I told Hermione I'd be over here at 9," Ginny said, glancing at her watch. "It's about ten past now."

"Because you didn't sleep here at all," Harry snorted.

"Of course I didn't," Ginny added sarcastically. "She would have worked it out though, so she's likely to be here soon."

"I hate it when Hermione's smart," Harry mumbled, standing up and wrapping his arms around Ginny's small waist from behind.

"Let's hope that Ron has a negative influence on her," Ginny smiled, turning around in his arms. She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him lightly.

"Hasn't yet, so probably not," Harry grinned, meeting her mouth halfway.

"We can hope," Ginny told him, gripping onto the back of his shoulders. They stood there for a few minutes, thoroughly enjoying each others company before they were interrupted.

"Er, hi!" Hermione squeaked, looking away from the two as she apparated in with a muffled crack.

"Sometimes I really don't like you," Harry mumbled at her, chin resting on Ginny's head after she had pulled away, her head now looking past his shoulder at her friend.

"Better me than Ron," Hermione told him. "Speaking of whom..." She trailed as another crack filled the room at Ron's entry.

"Figured you'd be here," Ron said shortly looking at Ginny, who was now nestled under Harry's arm. She glared at her brother.

"Hi to you too, Ron," Ginny glowered at him. "By the way, thanks for coming to the practise of my wedding last night, it was good to see you there, Ginny."

"Speaking of which," Ron replied, smiling at the two, "We all made the paper. And you two are pictured together."

"We noticed," Harry told him. "And we're with your parents too. So it's not too bad."

"No-one's likely to know anything about the two of you," Hermione told them. "Even though a lot of people should have put it together by now."

"Parents and brothers included," Ginny smirked. "We're suddenly being nice now."

"They never really knew we were fighting," Harry pointed out. "Well, the twins did obviously, but they haven't seen us together in the past three weeks or whatever it has been."

"They'll figure it out at the wedding," Hermione pointed out.

"But they're not allowed to say anything until after though," Ginny pointed out smartly. "I'll be sure to remind them that."

"I don't know why you don't just tell everyone," Ron grumbled at the two.

"I do," Hermione said with a knowing grin. "You Weasley's are scary."

"Yep," said Harry, nodding.

"I don't see how we're scary," Ron argued.

"Look," Harry told him openly. "Just because you didn't feel the need to hit me for snogging your sister doesn't mean say for example, Bill, will feel the same."

"Of course he will be," Ginny mumbled inaudibly.

"What was that, Gin?" Harry asked her, looking at her curiously. Ron and Hermione also stared at her.

"Oh, nothing important," said Ginny airily. Harry continued to look at her.

"Well," Hermione said, looking at her watch, "Ginny and I have an appointment in around fifteen minutes, so we should be off soon."

"Oh, yeah." Ron snorted with laughter. "That Muggle spa thing. Have fun girls." He smirked at them.

"What are you doing today?" Harry asked Ron.

"Well, that's why I'm here," Ron told him. "Viktor Krum has decided that he would really like to be friends with me, so he gave me tickets for the both of us to Bulgaria's game against us tonight. Good seats too," He added as an after thought, extracting two crumpled tickets from his pocket, passing one to Harry. Hermione rolled her eyes.

"And you two are just going to take advantage of this?" Hermione asked them.

"They're really good seats," Ron told her. "We're not taking advantage of anything! He gave them to us as a present." Harry noticed Ginny was looking between the two boys jealously. Harry poked his tongue out at her discretely; he knew perfectly well she would rather be going to the Quidditch.

"Though, naturally both of us will be supporting England," Harry told Hermione.

She sighed, nodding exasperatedly. "Have fun boys, I will see you soon Harry, and tomorrow Ron," She stood up on her tiptoes and kissed her fiancées cheek. "You know where we are going Ginny?" The redheaded girl nodded, and Hermione disappeared with a crack.

"I am so insanely jealous," Ginny moaned loudly once she had seen that Hermione had appartated away. "Do one of you want to swap with me today and go take mud baths with Hermione then get her trashed. No, wait, don't answer that," She added quickly, seeing the expression on Ron's face.

"So who's going to this thing tonight?" Ron asked his sister, smiling at her pain.

"Me and Hermione, obviously," Ginny said, counting off on her fingers. "Luna, Hannah Abbott; they always got along really well at school, Parvati, Padma, not Lav Lav," Ginny said, glancing at Ron, whose face brightened slightly. "George has forced Katie to come and, eurgh," she shuddered, "Phlegm." Harry smirked at his girlfriend.

"Well, I'll have fun watching world class Quidditch," Harry told her.

"You could be playing," Ron told him, but was ignored.

"And you have fun being belittled by your favourite sister in law," Harry snorted as Ginny glared at him.

"My only sister in law," Ginny pointed out.

"So by default then," He laughed.

"Six days until I get a new one," Ginny reminded herself as if she had been counting down the days since before even Ron and Hermione had announced the date. "I've suffered this long, what's six days?"

"Six days," Ron repeated nervously. Harry looked at his best friend, seeing his face pale. He realised with a jolt that he hadn't really spent any time other than a snatched conversation with Ron since December and that he had no real idea of what he had been up to. Harry had been preoccupied with Ginny, and Ron with Hermione.

Was this what it was going to be like when his two best friends married? The thought of change had never really crossed his mind, though it had been ever present. Ron and Hermione as a couple had never really effected him, despite the fact that they had been together for nearing five years. For most of that time they were chasing down Voldemort's horcruxes, so they had all had plenty of other things to distract them from it, and for the past couple of months... Well, it was like Harry had just thought; he had been far too preoccupied with Ginny. And he had never really spared a thought of how Ron and Hermione's marriage would affect the friendship between the three of them and what had forever been a trio. Obviously Harry was thrilled for his friend's happiness together, but it did leave him the eternally the outcast. Someone had always been an outcast with the three in some way or another, it was Hermione when Quidditch was brought up, Ron when he was being slow on the uptake or understanding the way that Harry and Hermione both understood how each other was raised as a Muggle. And he, Harry had always been an outcast from the entire world, but with Ron and Hermione it had felt less extreme. Was the security that they provided him now going to disappear when they married? Maybe it was just growing up.

Seeing the thoughtful look on Harry's face, Ginny sidled up to him and kissed him. Ron closed his eyes, peeking a glance after a moment. He relaxed, seeing that his sister had stopped kissing his best friend, but Ginny had done what she intended and caught Harry's undivided attention.

"I should go," Ginny told him. "Otherwise Hermione will come back worrying about what took me so long."

"Have fun," Harry told her sincerely, pulling her into a hug and whispering into her ear. "After Hermione's thing tonight, come back here?"

"Okay," Ginny said, pulling herself away from him. "I'll see you later Ron," She said to her brother.

"Yeah, sometime before the wedding," Ron told her, looking at the couch suspiciously. She nodded and turned back to Harry.

"And I'll see you probably tomorrow," Ginny said to Harry, winking slightly. "Love you."

"Yeah, you too," Harry said as Ginny smiled and apparated away. "What time's the game, Ron?"

"Not for a bit," Ron said shortly, still looking at the couch.

"You can sit down you know," Harry laughed. "You live here too, most the time anyway."

"I don't want to sit anywhere where you may have been snogging my sister," Ron told him.

"Yeah, you don't want to sit on the couch then," Harry half laughed. Ron nodded and sat down on the rug on the floor.

"Er," Harry said awkwardly. "Don't sit there either then." Ron glared at him.

"Mate, I don't want to know where you've been snogging my sister," Ron told him sourly, opting to sit on the coffee table as Harry fell onto the couch. Harry didn't say anything. "So you two are all good then?"

"Not really," Harry told Ron as Ron summoned food from the cupboard over to him; he ended up with a half eaten bag of Every Flavour Beans, some salt, a few slices of bread and what appeared to be a pile of mouldy cornflakes. He opted for the beans and bread.

"Whaa?" Ron asked through a mouthful of food. He swallowed before going on. "You two seem good though. You are back together, so surely that's ten times better than you were at Christmas?"

"More than ten," Harry told him, smiling slightly. "It's just that there are so many problems, and there are only so many that you can work out at a time. But we're trying."

"As long as it works out good in the end," Ron told him. "Because if you hurt my sister again, you know what's going to happen."

"Yeah," Harry nodded at him, laughing slightly. "But things will be okay. It doesn't matter if we don't agree on some things, or that we'll fight heaps, or that sometimes things are so horrible that it doesn't seem worth the effort, because it is. As long as we can just both understand that, then we can work through everything together. It's fantastic."

"That's good," Ron told him, clapping him on the shoulder. "That you two can work it out together, I mean. Me and Hermione don't do that."

"You two bicker until you just can't be bothered anymore or you forget why you were fighting in the first place," Ron said. "Or one of you realises that you are wrong but don't want to admit it to the other."

"Yeah," Ron said, once again looking pale.

"Are you nervous, mate?" Harry asked tentatively, guessing correctly at why Ron was turning green. "I mean, you're getting married."

"I am a bit," Ron said gruffly. "I mean, this is the right thing, isn't it?" He looked expectantly at his friend. "Marrying Hermione, I mean."

"Of course," Harry shot at him automatically.

"But it's exactly what you just said," Ron mumbled. "I'm getting married. And we do fight so much. Maybe it just isn't right, and me and her should go back to being just friends."

"You never really were just friends," Harry told him. "You look back at Hogwarts now, and you two were never really just friends." Ron avoided his eyes for a moment. "You've been fighting since first year, but you're all good what, ten years later? People don't change, really."

"I s'pose," Ron mumbled. "It's just it's so much."

"It's like what I was saying to Ginny," Harry told him. "For us, it's either all or nothing. If it's not all, I don't think that either of us be anywhere near the other because there will always just be stuff there. It's the same with you and Hermione. All or nothing."

"All then," Ron said quickly.

"Good," Harry said, patting him on the back. "Now let's go watch this Quidditch match."

* * *

A/N: A bit of a weird finish to this chapter, there is going to be another one before the wedding, and then maybe one or two after, or I might just do a few little epilogues after the wedding. Not entirely sure. Review please! If you read this every update and are excited by the email that tells you that I've updated, let me know!

Oh, and next chapter is featuring some H/G angsty moments again, not just fighting between them though.


	11. It's Always Him

**Fix You**

A/N: Wow... It's been a while. I can just say sorry for people reading this because real life got in the way with tests, tragedy and tiny bit of a block for me. However, I am on holidays again now, and therefore I will be typing until around 3 am in the morning (which will be fantastic). So sorry, and this WILL be done before Deathly Hallows.

And by the way, if anyone out there reading beta's, I've been reading over the past chapters and have realised that I do need a beta to go over them and all this new stuff. So, pop me up in a review if you would like to! It would be very much appreciated just to get a set of eyes looking for the mistakes that I just don't pick up.

And also, I have a few new oneshots, neither posted on siye because of the restrictions. **One Thousand Times Over** is morbid, confusing and rather bad ( I keep it as a reminder to myself of how bad things can actually be without focus), **Rain** is short, fluff/angst and a little better. Read if you want :D I'm in the process with one called **Chocolate Body Paint** which is kinda stupid and funny.

**Ch****apter Eleven – It's Always Him**

* * *

_February 22__nd__, 2002_

"So the game was good yesterday then?" Ginny asked Harry, sitting on his couch together, his arm loosely around her shoulder as she leant back against him lazily, both of their hair mussed slightly. The bright spring morning sun shone through the windows, a dull light filling the shadowless room.

"Yeah," Harry told her. "It was a really good game. Shame we didn't win, but Krum played really well. And me and Ron only had people chase us down and mob us for autographs twice."

"Is that better than normal?" Ginny asked him curiously.

"Much." He said plainly. "Have fun with Hermione?"

"Yes actually," Ginny confessed. "I thought I wouldn't because I would sit there wishing I was at the Quidditch, but it was good just to spend some time with Hermione. Between you, work and their wedding, both of us have been really busy. And besides," she giggled. "Me and Luna had to carry a drunk Hermione home. It was great though, she vomited on Phlegm's bag."

"Ouch," Harry winced, imagining the Veela's reaction. "Worth it?"

"Seeing her face," Ginny sighed contently. "So worth it." Harry laughed at her and ruffled her hair affectionately.

"And you got pictures?" He asked her playfully as she swatted his hand away.

"They're sitting in my flat, developing right now," She told him, grinning widely, snuggling up against his chest. Harry tightened his grip around her shoulders, leaning down and kissing the side of her face.

"Love you."

"You too," She grinned back at him. "So you and Ron did the whole blokey thing and watched the Quidditch without screaming like little girls?" He flushed slightly.

"Not really," Harry admitted to her, causing an eyeroll. "Ron lost his voice by then end of the game. It was good just to see Ron for a bit, you know. I hadn't really talked to him for weeks." He paused, looking thoughtful for a moment. "Not that Ron talked... More like yelled the entire game."

"I haven't spoken to him properly in ages too," Ginny mused. "You occupy all my time." He raised his eyebrows at her, forcing her to go on. "Oh, trust me, it's a good thing. But I haven't seen my parents for ages either. I hadn't seen them for almost a month before Ron and Hermione's rehearsal dinner thing the other night."

"Oh, that was funny," Harry reminisced, smiling at the thought of the Weasley parents a few nights before. "Especially when your mum started asking you about if you were bringing a date."

"Did you see Ron and Hermione's faces?" Ginny asked him. "They almost wet themselves when Mum started questioning you about whether your 'girlfriend' was going to be at the wedding and I'm standing on the other side of her, also trying not to laugh," She pulled a bit of fluff of his jeans. "Good thing the twins weren't there; they would have seen exactly what was going on."

"That would have been a bit of a pain to deal with."

"I know, right?" She said. "I mean, I just think that no-one knowing about us in the first place was quite a good effort."

Harry looked at her, confusion on his face. "No one but the entire school, Gin."

"No," She said, hitting his stomach lightly. "Family and Order wise I mean. I would have thought that since Mum has been trying to sell me off to you for so long, someone would have picked up on something going on."

"Lupin did," Harry told her, stretching his arms out behind him. "That Christmas during the war when you were working, Lupin started questioning me on you."

"Wow, and here I was thinking that everyone was stupid."

"I thought you told your parents when we started going out though," Harry told her. "Then they just forgot about it or something."

Ginny paused for a moment, looking up at him unabashed. "I was going to tell them... but then I didn't want to."

"Why not?" He shot her a questioning look and she just smiled up at him.

"Like that would have been a fun letter to write," She scoffed. "'Hi Mum and Dad, we won Quidditch, but Harry didn't play because he used some dark spell on Malfoy and got into a heap of trouble. I've been snogging him constantly instead of studying for my OWLs, I mean, who really cares about education that much anyway, apart from Hermione at least. Speaking of her, Ron and Hermione are that close to admitting that they like each other, I might lock them in a broom closet together, then me and Harry will be left in peace to snog. But anyway, how's Phlegm?' That would have gone down really well." Harry laughed at her, his green eyes twinkling at her through his glasses and he pulled his arm around her tighter, kissing the ruby crown of her head tenderly.

"You have a very good point Gin," He told her, taking her hand in head and putting his forehead against hers. "I think we have to tell them sometime though."

"Just not until after their wedding," Ginny told him. "I don't want the fuss." His eyebrows shot into the air.

"Ashamed of me or something, Weasley?"

"Only a little," She teased. "It's more that I don't want to steal their thunder. And there's also the whole 'told you so' factor." He grinned at her widely.

"Their thunder?" Harry asked her.

"The attention away from them," She explained, her brown eyes rolling back in her head.

"Yeah, Ron doesn't like that," Harry said mildly. "So we tell people stuff after the wedding? Or let them figure it out for themselves?"

"Fred and George are going to tell everyone, so yeah," Ginny mumbled. "We get out of it atleast."

"Point," Harry said, putting a hand through her hair briefly. "So what are we doing today?"

"I'm working this afternoon," She rolled her eyes. "So not too much."

"Do you really have to work?" Harry whinged. "Can't you just skive it off? If your family all find out after the wedding we have four days before your mum starts, well..."

"Imposing?" Ginny supplied, curling up into Harry's chest. "She'll have no weddings to plan so she'll try to move onto us. However, unfortunately, I really can't skip work. As you would know if you had a job." Harry groaned audibly.

"Honestly, Gin, leave us unemployed hobos alone!" She pinched his side at this.

"I would if you just got a job," She pointed out smartly. "You could get any job, anywhere. No-one actually likes working, so I don't see why you can't just choose one." He shook his head at her sadly.

"It's not that simple for me, Gin." He exhaled slowly during a brief pause. "I could just choose a job and leave it at that, but people just want to use me for my name; I hate it. You know that." He sighed this time. "I wish my life would be simple for once. I figured that after the war it would be, but it's not. It's not like I need the money anyway." His arm shook once around her, and he went on with rubbing circles onto her collarbone.

"Personally," Ginny told him quietly after a moment. "I love your name. You're definitely a Harry, not a Ray, Bert, Adam or Sean." She grinned up at him, leaning in to peck his lips lightly as he opened his mouth to retort. "And yes, I did know what you actually meant." He rolled his eyes at her. "But you have to be realistic, Harry, your life is never going to be simple, no one's ever is."

"I'm sure some people have simple lives," He told her, sighing deeply again.

"Trust me, they don't." Ginny stared up into his face plainly. "I see it every day healing, everyone has a story to tell. Everyone has their own problems and issues, everyone has something they don't like, and something that they enjoy. Nearly everyone has a job, and I'm sure that everyone hates their job sometimes. It's the truth, and pretty much everyone is some version of the same. Your problems are just a bit more, well, extreme."

"That's one way to put it," Harry told her, voice dripping in disdain. "It's like I just want to start fresh now that the war is over, but I also don't want to forget what happened."

"And how does that affect you working though?" She asked him patiently. "They don't have to be linked, Harry."

"For me they do," He told her defiantly, barely recognising the rant that followed as his own. "I mean, there are a few things that I would like to do, but I really can't. I don't want to be an Auror because I don't want to fight anymore, but I don't want to play Quidditch or something just as trivial that I will enjoy because then it will seem like I'm just... just throwing away everything that has happened to me. Like I'm just forgetting everything that happened before the end of last year. Because I can't Gin, and I suppose it would be lovely to, but I can't." He looked at her pleadingly.

"How can I just forget that the people I care about were killed? Not thinking about it isn't going to bring Sirius or Dumbledore or Cedric back," He looked at her, impassioned, green boring into brown openly. "I never knew my parents and that's never going to change now this is all over. I'm still going to be Harry Potter; Boy Who Lived and whatever other titles everyone throws at me. At first I thought it would stop once the war is over, but it didn't. So then I thought it would be better when we were back together, and it is about a million times better to be back with you, but it's still there... and it sucks." He finished weakly and looked down at her expectantly, as if he was somehow hoping she would solve all of his problems, pleading with her to somehow provide some simple solution to everything. She broke eye contact, placing her pale, freckled hand over his larger, worn one as he sat there, clearly lost at what to say..

"I... I don't know what to tell you, Harry," Ginny whispered to him after a moment, climbing onto and straddling his lap. He dropped his forehead onto her shoulder, black hair tickling her neck as he tried to seek some comfort from her warmth. "I wish I could spurt out solutions to anything that bugs you like it seems like you've been doing for me, but I can't." She ruffled the back of his hair gently.

"I... I don't expect you to," He told her gently, not looking up. "I just... needed to tell you I guess."

"Another thing that you are doing a lot of," Ginny mused to him, rubbing the back of his head. "It's okay. I... I love you and I'm here to listen, and despite how corny it sounds, I'm here for you, to help you." She put her hands on his chest, and nodding his head off her shoulder, she kissed him swiftly. He grinned crookedly as she pulled away, clearly not fully distracted from his plight.

"You're wonderful, you know that?" He told her.

"I believe it from you," She told him, smiling into his mouth.

"You should."

* * *

_February 2__4__th__, 2002_

"They're so sickening," Ginny whispered conspiringly to Harry as they sat side by side at the packed Burrow dinner table.

"Who?" Harry choked quietly through a mouthful of treacle tart.

"My brother," Ginny scowled quietly, looking around the table. Harry followed suit, also glancing around the table wondering to himself how everyone fitted. Harry was sitting near the door between Ginny and Lupin. A purple haired Tonks sat next to him, the two chatting animatedly with Bill's about the latest development between the Ministry and Gringotts while Fleur sat on Bill's other side, their son Robbie sitting next to her patiently as Fleur cut up his steak and kidney pudding for him. Mrs Weasley sat on his other side, quite content to coddle her grandchild. Fred and George sat between their parents, teasing Ron across the table as Hermione held his hand soothingly while chatting with her mother as her father and Mr Weasley discussed hot air balloons. Ginny elbowed Ron in the side who then passed the potatoes down

"Which brother?" Harry asked jokingly. "The red-headed one?" It was two days until Ron and Hermione's wedding, and they had all gathered at the Burrow for a celebratory dinner of sorts before the wedding. As per Weasley dinners went, it had turned chaotic. The twins had let off a firework in the kitchen an hour before, exploding Mrs Weasley's soup, much to Robbie's delight. Somehow, in all the ruckus of Fleur complaining, Mrs Weasley yelling and Tonks snickering loudly, Harry had somehow got 'stuck' sitting next to Ginny, something that Ron, Hermione and the twins were quick to notice but seemed to ignore.

"Oh, stop being such an irritating twat, Harry," Ginny growled at him aggressively under her voice. She narrowed her eyes at him and glared. "I really-" Her voice lightened and lost the sudden intensity she had just picked up. "It's okay, George has looked away again."

Harry smirked down at his potatoes, glancing up at the twin who had indeed just launched himself into an insult of his little brother. "So which brother is sickening?" He glanced and Bill. Mrs Weasley was playing with her grandson so Fleur had resumed her favourite hobby in feeding her husband, but Hermione was also leaning heavily on Ron.

"The one sitting next to me," She mumbled, sipping on her elderflower wine.

"Slightly revolting indeed," Harry agreed, trying to hide a grin, side glancing at his two best friends who were basically sitting on each other. Lupin looked at him briefly, smiling at him in a way that Harry hated.

"And I bet they don't even know that I'm sitting here complaining that they are all over each other at dinner in front of their parents," Ginny moaned quietly. Ron buttered Hermione's roll for her and she smiled and rested her head on his shoulder. "Right, that's it, no more food for me." She pushed her plate away from her, fiddling with her pudding with her potatoes.

"So Harry," Lupin smiled benignly, raising his eyebrows and nodding towards Ginny slightly, whose ears turned slightly red and turned to start a conversation over the table with Bill. "How's... things?"

"Shut up," Harry glared at him, though not thoroughly embarrassed as Lupin looked from him to Ginny repetedly, the smile on the werewolf's face. Lupin smiled wider. "I don't want to talk about me at the moment. How are you? What have you been up to?"

"Well, working at the Ministry now," He told her. "That's going well."

"That's good then," Harry said, nodding and smiling at Lupin.

"Have you finished writing your Best Man speech?" Tonks asked Harry over her boyfriend. Harry snorted.

"Writing it?" He asked, amusement on his face. Both Lupin and Tonks looked shocked at this. "I'm not writing it down," Harry told them, "but I know what I'm going to say at least."

"Is it going to be cute?" She asked him, smiling wickedly. "Entertaining? Going to make us all gush?" Harry rose one of his eyebrows at her.

"Well," he deliberated for a moment, "it'll make you laugh at least."

"Good kid," Tonks smiled widely.

"What about you?" Lupin asked him after he wolfed down the rest of potatoes and pulled a piece of treacle tart desert towards him. "Are you ever going to get a job, Harry?"

"I thought I just said just before that I don't want to talk about me," Harry said exasperatedly. It was one of those moments where the whole room just went quiet as Harry said something, and all of a sudden everyone's attention was on him. He reddened slightly as he felt the eyes burning into him. "I... I just don't want to."

"But it's so much fun talking about you," George drawled.

"It's enjoyable for everyone," his twin continued. "Especially when it turns to your unemployment."

"The newspapers love it," Tonks pointed out. Harry scowled at her. He felt Ginny move slightly next to him.

"They're bordering stalkerish," Ron told him. "Kind of crazy actually."

"I just think that it's cool that you have your own column," Bill laughed. "It's like you going to buy milk is news or something."

"I zink eet eez disturbing," Fleur said huffily. "Zat everyone knows everyzing you do."

"I completely agree with you Fleur," Mrs Weasley said heartily. "I think that they should just leave you alone. They follow everything you and what everyone around you does constantly." Ginny shifted awkwardly again.

"Me and George like to keep tabs on the self-assured twat," Fred said, smiling widely. "We pull the article out of the paper every week."

"We hang them up in the bathroom at the shop," George added. "I particularly liked the one about your new jumper, Harry." This time, Ginny almost shuddered; Harry silently wondering what was going on as he felt her moving next to him. He pressed his leg against her bare one, but she shied away at his touch. She stared down into her plate, a horrible thought trickling up through her head, then spreading through her veins to her heart.

Harry lived a marked life. First it had been by Voldemort, but now it was by the world that he had saved. Everyone loved him; everyone looked out for him and wanted to protect him. Heroes were an endangered species in the wizarding world. And no-one would like their Man Who Conquered to be stuck down with some gold digging village broomstick. They would spread the nastiest things about her possible, she realised with a jolt, the most horrid part about it being that they would be true.

What would Bill think? Would Ron assume that she had just become some little whore for his best friend? Her mum had always told her to be who she wanted, not who she was told to be. Would her parents now think that the only thing she wanted was to be some subserving scarlet woman? She sat silent for the rest of dinner. She knew there was only one thing to do; the one that she had wanted to do for ages, but only recently turned to baulk at the thought of. Being with him had often led to pain, but this time it would be so much worse because she knew what she was sacrificing for her reputation. She had to stay as far away from Harry as possible.

* * *

Harry apparated into the dark cluttered flat that he knew to be Ginny's. He walked through the tiny kitchenette, past the door that revealed Ginny's bedroom with clothes scattered across the floor haphazardly. Toeing past the large fern pot plant; vivid emerald leaves overflowing and luminescent crimson and shocking violet spilling out, and he walked into the dim little lounge area. An overladen bookshelf sat in the corner next to a stuffy armchair, the final glowing embers of a fire lingering in the fireplace.

"Ginny?" Harry called through the darkness. Arnold the Pygmy Puff was spinning in his squeaky silver exercise wheel on the oak mantle, stopping to look at Harry for a moment before continuing. A subdued sniffle led Harry through the mess, hopping over healers robes to the couch facing the fire, where he found Ginny, curled up like a cat, biting her lip and bravely fighting back tears, her red hair streaming all over her face wildly. "Gin."

"Oh, just sod off for a bit, Harry," She rolled her glazing eyes at him. He sighed deeply, and then threw himself down in the couch next to her.

"Not likely," he told her, putting his hand on hers. This time she didn't shy away. "Now what's wrong? I came as quick as I could." She groaned and sat up, facing his concerned face. She had not talked to anyone all through dinner, and had escaped from the Burrow almost immediately after they had finished eating, not helping her mother with the dishes or even sparing a word for him. After significant glances with Ron and Hermione, Harry had managed to escape as well, chasing her down to where he knew she would be, all the while wondering what was going on.

"Why do you always catch me crying then make me talk about things?"

"No idea," Harry shot back promptly, rubbing circles on his hand with her thumb. "It's okay... You're cute when you cry." He smiled at her warmly as she scowled.

"Well, I hate it," She said, wiping under her eyes with the back of her hand. "I used to be able to control my feelings, but now... I can't," she finished lamely. "It's like I'm little Miss 'Cry for the sake of it' these days." He shrugged his shoulders.

"Everyone goes through phases like that," Harry pointed out. "Don't worry. I managed to do 'angry' for a whole year." She smiled weakly at him.

"I'll see your year length angry and raise you 'slut' for four," She said sourly.

"No, you managed hurt and spiteful for four," He told her firmly, seeing the self hate etched on her face. "You're not a slut." He ruffled her hair affectionately, earning a slap on his wrist.

"I... I think we have to break up," she told him after a painful moment of deliberation. Harry, who had been sitting up and watching her intently, fell back into the couch, letting go of her hand and releasing a grunting moan somewhere between frustration and disbelief.

"Just tell me what's it about this time, Ginny," He said hollowly, sounding mildly annoyed and now watching her with limited patience.

"What do you mean, 'what's it about this time'?" She demanded, arcing up at him a bit.

"I mean, what's it about this time?" He shot back honestly, looking at her. "After everything that we've been through, you can't just want to break up now. You're the one who said the other week that you couldn't stand it if we did break up. We've been through too much, but it feels like we're having the same conversations over and over and just fighting for the sake of it now." He stared at her plainly for a moment. "Merlin Gin, no-one even knows that we're together yet."

"And that's what this is about this time," she told him wearily. "They can't find out. No-one can."

"Oh," Harry said, thinking back to the conversation back at the Burrow. "You don't want to deal with all the papers, and the jealous girls, and those things that will come with being Harry Potter's girlfriend, right?" A slightly hurt yet understanding look fell across his face.

"I can deal with that," Ginny reassured him. "I just can't deal with what's going to come with that, what they are going to say." He just stared at her for a moment, clearly confused again. It came to the same thing, didn't it?

"Err," he began, but she cut him off straight away.

"C'mon, Harry," she said critically. "You don't honestly thing that all this stuff about me won't come out?"

"I can deal with that," he echoed her earlier words. "I don't care what other people are going to say or think; they're just newspapers. They don't matter to me."

"They matter to my mum though," she told him darkly. "My dad's going to care when people go around saying 'Oh, Ginny Weasley, Harry Potter's whorish girlfriend'. _I _can't deal with what my family would thing if that sort of thing got published."

"Oh," was all Harry could say, looking rather crestfallen. Ginny bit her lip and continued painfully as Harry opened his mouth to retort.

"When people come out saying 'Well, I've slept with Harry Potter's wife, top that,' you're going to start caring too," she seized his hand and met his eyes earnestly. "And we could just shove it off and deny it, but things are going to start matching up then, and people will start making sense of it. My family already look at me as if I'm a baby, and I wouldn't be able to deal if they started seeing me as a little slut as well."

She had been starting at him the whole time, and he hadn't looked away until now. He stood up so abruptly she flinched. He faced away from her, staring into the fireplace for a moment before spinning on the spot and rocking back and forwards slightly on the balls of his feet.

"We could deny it all," Harry said slowly, looking at Ginny's bare feet. "We could just say that the newspapers are doing there usual thing and scavenging a story. We could just worry about us and not what anyone else thinks. And your family," He paused for a moment and met Ginny's hopeless eyes, "we could just twist what the vultures would be saying. We could deny what the papers and everyone says."

"People would still believe it though," Ginny said, running her hands through her dishevelled hair. "It doesn't change the fact that people will know."

"And so what?" Harry asked her. "So what? The truth is only what people believe. The stupid papers have been talking rubbish about me for years, and this can just be added to the pile. No-one need know if there is truth behind the words." He tugged on her arm and drew her into a tight hug.

"Well, aren't you reassuring," she said sarcastically into his neck.

"That I am," Harry teased, tucking a wayward strand of red hair behind his girlfriends ear preciously. "Is it just me or are we just having the same conversations over and over again?"

"Yeah," Ginny sighed, her head on his shoulder. She blew onto his neck, raising little goose bumps just below his ear. "Well, you need to stop being right." She pulled away from him gently and fell backwards onto the couch.

"You need to stop worrying," Harry retorted, smiling at her before plopping down next to her. "It's you and me against the world Gin." She smiled at her feet, but also scoffed in disbelief.

"You, me, Hermione and my family against the world," She rolled her eyes at him. He looked at her in shock for a moment before remembering what they had talked about weeks ago. Constant reassurance.

"We can just ignore them," he pointed out after a moment as Ginny's head came up off his shoulder and stared at him. "What they think honestly doesn't matter. And besides," he added as if it were an afterthought. "They're going to listen to what either of us say over what Rita Skeeter or someone does." He smiled at her, a smile urging her happiness on.

"They'll listen to you," Ginny said sourly, "but not me. They love you."

He looked at her dumbfounded for a moment.

"Err, they're your family though."

She sat in quiet for a moment, Harry looking down on her through questioning eyes. She looked determinedly down for a moment, not looking to meet his eyes.

"They don't listen to me though," she said quietly, looking at her feet still, feeling like she wouldn't be able to say what she thought she should if she looked up at him. "I'm just little baby Ginny who does what she's told and nothing else, because if I ever do anything wrong, I get told off and have to be looked after and talked down to in that condescending tone that is like, genetic in my family or something."

"What?" Harry asked quietly dumbfounded. She shook her head quickly.

"Don't worry about it," She said quickly.

"I will worry about it," Harry told her gently. "What's wrong?" He looked at her earnestly, easing on an answer from her.

"I don't know really," Ginny sighed, running her hands through her hair exasperatedly. "I really don't. I'm probably just being all melodramatic and making a big deal out of something that doesn't really matter."

"Ginny," he sighed, placing his large, slightly calloused, warm hand over her smaller, smooth one. "If it matters to you even slightly, it matters to me."

"It's just..." She trailed off quietly and squeezed his thumb. "It's like I'm not allowed to be me, to be a person, I'm just another Weasley and another offshoot of the whole red-headed clan of people. I hate it, yet it's who I am at the same time, and I can't fight it." He squeezed her hand.

Harry opened his mouth to say something, something which she knew would be reassuring and somehow charming also, but she cut him off before he got the chance.

"I know you would... well, _have_ killed for that," she muttered to him. "It's just sometimes I just despise that I'm always going to be another Weasley, and that I have to follow everything set down by my brothers because that's the way it is." Harry put his hand in her hair and stroked her scalp softly for a moment. She chuckled slightly as he stopped and looked up at him with raised eyebrows.

"I'm not a cat," Ginny told him. "Am I meant to start purring now or something?"

"I suppose not," he sighed sneakily. They sat in a comfortable silence for a moment before she turned to Harry, who was looking at her inquisitorially, silently telling her to say what she wanted to.

"You know," Ginny said, pausing. "I used to think that you liked me just so I could give you an in to my family." She looked at him pityingly.

"Well, I don't," Harry told her quickly, eyes widening in shock. "Don't think that. I love you because you're smart, funny, opinionated, beautiful, because you can put me in-" She silenced him with a smile and a shake of her head.

"I don't think that anymore," she informed him. "It was only fleeting anyway. But after that went, I thought that maybe I liked you because _you_ gave me an in to my family. It's like I said before; they love you, they listen to you."

"And they love and listen to you too," Harry told her forcefully. She shook her head sadly.

"Yeah, they love me, but they don't listen to me. Not really." She put her head on his shoulder, and he put his head on top of hers, stretching the arm that wasn't holding her hand around her waist and pinching her side softly. "It's like they hear me, they see me, but don't pay no real attention. I'm a sister at their convenience, when it suits them, you know?"

Harry looked at the top of his girlfriends head in shock. He had never really observed the tensions in the Weasley family, despite the years that he and Hermione had spent with the red-heads. Obviously they all weren't too fond of Percy these days, Mrs Weasley always yelled at the twins, and Ginny still wasn't overly fond of Fleur, but Harry had never really paid too much attention to the sort of thing Ginny was on about. He was sure she wouldn't be rabbiting on about nothing, but he couldn't really see where this was coming from. But just because he couldn't see it didn't mean it wasn't there.

"Gin?" Harry asked softly, sounding slightly cautious. "To tell you the honest truth, I don't know. What I do know though is that you wouldn't say anything unless it was bothering you, and just because I don't see it doesn't mean it's unimportant." She smiled slightly up at him. "You can tell me and I can try to understand."

"It's okay..." she trailed off. "It's like I said before, chances are I'm making a big deal out of something that isn't."

"If it matters, it matters."

"Well... think back to like... oh, my fifth year," Ginny told him. "And I was going out with Dean?"

"Yeah," Harry said so sourly she grinned.

"Well, the twins only knew or cared that I was going out with him because together them and Ron decided that they did," Ginny explained. "The twins didn't mind when I was going out with Michael."

"They actually knew?" Harry asked, mildly taken aback.

"Yeah," she smirked. "And they didn't even mind at all. But then I started going out with Dean, and all of a sudden, a whole bunch of brothers start harassing me about it. It's like they just randomly decided to care."

"Ron always cared," Harry pointed out quietly. Ginny snorted.

"Don't get me started on Ron. Ron cared that they weren't you," She told him plainly. "I kiss my boyfriend in an abandoned corridor, I'm the biggest scarlet woman the world has ever seen, but you snog me in front of the entire house and it's okay."

"Point," he conceded, smiling slightly, she shot him a glare that clearly was telling him to be serious.

"And Ron, he actually knew all about us fighting for the past Merlin knows how long," Ginny pointed out. "He didn't know why, just that you were a prick to me, but he sides with you automatically."

"Only because-" Harry begun, but Ginny cut him off.

"We've talked about this a billion and one times," she rolled her eyes. "Let's not start again now. I'm sorry, you're sorry, we've moved on. Ron thought you were doing the right thing."

"And Hermione thought you were doing the right thing," Harry said gently. "Even if she didn't admit it. But I'm not holding it against her."

"But Ron's my brother," Ginny told him simply. "He's supposed to care if some boy breaks my heart. It's his job, but because it's you, you were exempt. Same with the twins when they found out all about this. No-one cares because it's you." Harry rolled his eyes.

"Story of my life, Gin," He mumbled quietly. She squeezed his thumb again. "I'm sorry."

"I know, and it's not your fault," she sympathised. "But you're a right thing to do, so they don't care. They only care when I've made a mistake of some sorts... They care when there is a problem, but that's it."

"I still don't agree," Harry said gently.

"You see what I'm getting at though?" Ginny asked him. "They only care when it suits them. To my parents and Bill and Charlie, I'm the little baby and what I say is taken with a grain of floo powder. My opinions and thoughts are only important when they decide they are. And so often, what's happening with me goes unnoticed for ages. Just look at the past couple of years," she added sourly. "Sometimes, it's just like no-one but you and Hermione care. My healer friends... well, I don't tell them much, and the old Hogwarts crowd just figure it isn't any of their business, and rightfully so. The only person I would actually bother with this sort of stuff is Luna, and while I love her dearly, there's only so much that even I can take of it being related to Crumple Horned Snorkacks." Harry snorted. Ginny slapped his knee before leaning against his chest heavily.

"I don't know anymore," She went on quietly after a moment. "I have no idea where this all came from, or if it's just me being paranoid, or I'm overanalysing what's going on." They sat in silence for a moment before a stray though crossed Harry's mind. It had been so long... But apparently the problems were still there.

"I do," Harry said quietly. Ginny looked up to him with subdued curiosity. "It's because the people who should have noticed when you were at your worst didn't. They didn't care about how you were doing until after it was almost too late; until they were told about what you were dealing with. They only noticed when they had to." He stood up abruptly and stumbled over to the door. He stood as a silhouette; facing away from her and trembling so bad after a moment he had to grip to the door frame to hold himself steady. His head drooped down towards his chest.

"Harry?" Ginny asked quietly from where she was sitting on the couch. He let go of the door frame, spinning on the spot slowly yet forcefully to face her.

"It's always him, isn't it?" He spat, his voice riddled with anger, frustration and detached misery. It wasn't aimed at her, more aimed at everything in the universe instead. His face was screwed up in a grimace, hands balled up into defeated fists. "And it's always going to be him." Ginny stood up and took a few futile steps towards him, but didn't get too close; he was angrier than she had ever seen him, even during his fifth year.

"All the problems we all ever have are somehow going to be his fault," Harry went on in hopeless defiance. "Voldemort. It all traces back to him."

"C'mon Harry, sit down," Ginny stuttered feebly. He ignored this.

"I sacrificed so much in my life to get rid of him," Harry said in a powerful whisper. "I've lost so much, I've done so many things just to try and stop him, but it means nothing."

"It means a hell of a lot, Harry," she told him forcefully, but he was somehow filling the empty room; she had all the space but none at the same time.

"I lost my parents," he said, more to himself than her. "Sirius, Dumbledore. My childhood. Any chance I had of being normal. And through me, Ron and Hermione have suffered too." He now looked her straight in the eye. "I hurt you because of him, Gin, and I regret that more than you could ever know. He wrecks so many lives."

"He killed a lot of people," Ginny agreed quietly. "But that's in the past, Harry. You've got to move on or you'll drive yourself insane." He shook his head sadly, his messy hair glinting in the moonlight.

"I'm not just talking about people he killed when I say he wrecked people's lives," he breathed in shallowly. "All of us who have made it through still have to deal with what he did. It wasn't bloody Greyback who wrecked Lupin's life, it was Voldemort when he took away the only people who accepted him for who he was, not what he was. The Diggory's and Cho Chang. Are they meant to stop missing Cedric, stop grieving for him now the war is over?" Harry's head rolled back on his shoulders, and he looked up at the ceiling, somehow trying to draw comfort from it.

"Your mum's brothers aren't going to suddenly come back from the dead, and even Draco Malfoy got caught up in the middle of it all because of the decisions made by his father before he was born." His breath was catching in his throat as he ranted. "Susan Bones is still going to have to explain to her kids why they have no family on her side. And then there's all those people I don't know who lost someone they loved dearly, or kids who are like me and Neville and will grow up without parents; those whose lives were torn apart by Voldemort still have to wake up in the morning and deal with what he did." Silence stifled the room for a brief, stretching moment.

"Harry," Ginny said with sad calmness, walking over to him steadily and grasping his hand tightly, holding it against her chest. He looked at her sharply, green eyes so pleading behind his glasses. "Please."

"You," Harry went on quietly, voice cracking slightly, breathing shallowly still. "I tried to keep you away from it. But you were already involved. He possessed you.." he rolled his eyes, searching for the number, "ten odd years ago, and something that is bothering you now can still be traced back to him." He sighed. "I love you, and you don't deserve the memories of some sadistic creep's diary hanging around to haunt you. You deserve to be happy. All those people who aren't happy because of what has been left by this stupid war deserve to be happy." They stood there silently, Harry's breathing eventually returning to a steady and even pace.

"Harry," Ginny told him patiently, staring him straight in the eye, almost as if she were looking straight through him. "Listen to me."

"I am. I always am," he pleaded her, and much like the other day, he was begging for definite answers that she couldn't give.

"I am happy," she told him, "believe it or not, I am. The thing is, sometimes we draw the short straw and have to go through things we'd rather not." She tugged him back to the couch, and he sunk into it, head in his hands but watching her unblinkingly. Ginny perched herself precociously next to him. "But the thing is, I don't regret the whole possession thing because I know that I'm a stronger person for it. We become who we are through our struggles, and while they absolutely suck, things become okay in the end. It's what I believe anyway."

"You're right," he told her, smiling weakly.

"Can I give you some advice?" She asked him, but was going to give an answer irregardless. "Can I tell you how to make things better?"

"Please do," he pleaded softly.

"It's quite simple. You just have to understand that you can't fix everything." She told him rather anticlimactically, and he looked at her slightly shocked. "You can't make these people who have been through what they have get normal lives again, you can't bring people back from the dead, and you can't make everything how it was." She smiled a small smile, reinstalling some hope in him. "What you can do is help."

"H- how?" Harry asked awkwardly, his eyebrows raised and gripping her hand for strength.

"I don't know," She told him with a triumphant grin. "You work it out. You don't have or need a job, so you have plenty of time on your hands, and I don't know what you would want, anyway." She kissed his temple gently.

"Do something that will make you feel like you are helping people, like you are making their lives just that little bit better. Make them not have to go through everything you did." She squeezed his hand. "Make life just that little bit easier for them to cope with."

"But... what if it doesn't?" Harry asked her imploringly. "What if not everyone becomes okay with everything?"

"If you help one person, it'll all be worth it."

He smiled at her, and the gaping hole in him that the war had left in him... well, it wasn't fixed, but it did feel, as Ginny had said just a little bit easier to cope with. As she kissed him, only one thing was running through his mind: they'd be okay as long as they stuck together.

* * *

A/N: Well, I hope it was worth the wait, and that the length helps with that... And that's it for the angsty side of this. There are only two chapters to go, the wedding (which I anticipate to be very long, but should be written rather quickly), and an epilogue (or maybe even two). Reviewers are loved! As usual, I won't be responding (it takes away from the time when we both would prefer me to be writing), but I think I will be for the final chapter! 


	12. The Wedding and The Girlfriend

**Fix You**

A/N: Thanks to all reviewers and to Carla for betaing!

* * *

**Chapter Twelve – The Wedding and The Girlfriend**

_February 26__th__, 2001, Ron and Hermione's wedding_

"Harry?"

"Yeah?" A pause.

"How long til she gets here?"

Harry checked his watch with a flourish, looking around the almost full church, familiar heads recognisable through the masses; Tonks' bright pink was recognisable in the third row, Lupin, looking only slightly ragged was sitting next to her. Luna was sitting on the aisle in the row behind them, noticeable by her messy, dirty blonde hair; she was looking vaguely up at the vaulted ceiling of the old church, sunlight streaming through the stained glass windows. The echoing cathedral was littered with quiet chatter and red headed Weasleys', some Harry knew and others he didn't. The one standing next to him was pale in his muggle style suit, his nervousness not reflected in his appearance; a straight tie and combed hair, staring relentlessly at the door.

"Pretty much anytime now," Harry told Ron, straightening his jacket sleeve. They were talking in muted sidelong whispers. Harry glanced at the closest people; Mrs Weasley was sitting in the front row, tears of joy and sorrow already pouring down her face as her husband rubbed her hand supportively. "Your mum's already crying." He added in a voice whisper that no-one but he and Ron would hear.

"Yeah," Ron said breathily, barely seeming to notice what Harry was saying. He was still captivated by the large, brown doors at the other side of the church that had been thrown open to reveal the wet muggle street outside and the seedy looking photographers who were surreptitiously trying to get photos of inside. "I hope she comes." Harry raised his eyebrows at him.

"_Hope_ she comes?" The best man asked the groom. "Of course she will."

"She mightn't," Ron said in quiet panic, his face going pale at the thought of this. "Maybe she won't be here."

"Trust me mate, she will be," Harry said, trying his best to be reassuring, though he knew chances are he was failing dismally.

"What if she gets here," Ron mused quietly, "then decides she doesn't want to get married anymore?" He shot a fleeting glance of terror at Harry before returning to his vigil over the door.

"Not likely," Harry told him. "You know what she's like, and she's worked too hard on this wedding to want to back out now." Upon seeing the look on his face, he hastily went on. "And she loves you too, which is the whole reason why she worked so hard."

"Still," Ron whispered noncommittally.

"She'll be here," insisted Harry. "She won't miss today, I promise." Ron just looked at him momentarily.

"She's been here since you two were fighting over Krum after the Yule Ball and she told you to notice that she was a girl." He smirked at his best friend before going on. "And you've been here since we knowingly ran off to visit oversized spiders in hope that it would help get her un-petrified. Take my word for it, she'll be here."

Ron broke his gaze away from the door, staring at Harry intensely. "Since when did you get so profound?" He seemed to have settled slightly.

Harry shrugged his shoulders as if he didn't know either.

"Is that how you convinced my sister to take you back?" Ron asked cheekily, grinning at him. "Pulling the whole 'I'm Mr Deep-and-Meaningful Boy Who Lived' act?"

"Not on purpose," Harry told him honestly. Ron snorted, gaining shocked looks from several people waiting for the ceremony to begin.

"Because she's the most stubborn person I know," Ron told him in a whisper, ignoring the people who had looked over at his crude behaviour. "You and Hermione included too. Because if I'm being honest with you, I didn't expect you and Ginny to work it out."

"Thanks for your vote of confidence, Ron," Harry rolled his eyes, but glad that Ron wasn't quite as nervous as he had been moments ago.

"Well, not this quickly, anyway," added Ron surreptitiously, glancing back at the door momentarily. "I wanted you to of course, I just didn't expect it. What did you say to her to make her come round, anyway?"

"I dunno," Harry said slowly after a moment, thinking it was better to keep Ron focussed on him rather then his ever approaching nuptials. "I guess I just told her that I cared about her too much to let all the stupid stuff that's been going on to get in the way."

"Going soft in your old age?" Ron teased jokingly. "Little Harry growing up a bit?"

"Like I ever had a choice to stay young and immature," Harry told him. "And anyway, you're the one getting married."

"Point," Ron said distractedly as a muggle limousine pulled up out the front of the church, the cameras of the photographers flashing and whirring. "But with Ginny... if you hurt her..." He trailed off as they saw through the open door Ginny climb out of the car, wearing a pretty pair of flowing bridesmaid robes in a pale green, followed by Mr Granger.

"I already have," Harry said, slightly mournfully as she caught his eye from yards away and smiled warmly at him. "It won't happen again though."

"Good," was all Ron could say as Hermione, wearing a stunning white dress stepped out of the car with the help, causing the cameras to go off even more, the people inside the church to stand out of their seats, turning to face the doors as the bridal party walked inside, the large brown doors slamming behind them.

Clapping him on the shoulder as the organ began playing; Harry muttered something into Ron's ear. "Told you she'd be here."

* * *

"I can't believe that my little Ronald is all grown up and married!" Mrs Weasley sobbed in the back of a limousine similar to the one that Hermione had arrived in an hour and a half later.

"Poor Hermione," Fred muttered, trying to pop the cork off a bottle of champagne without taking out someone's eye. Due to the muggle nature of the wedding, Hermione had expressed that she wanted all magical guests to take muggle transport to the reception after the ceremony, avoiding apparition and Floo powder at all costs in an attempt not to draw attention from some unknowing muggle relatives.

This somehow left Harry, Ginny, Mr and Mrs Weasley and Granger stuck together in seats only intended for four, and on top of that, Fred and George realised last minute that they had no form of transportation, and so had jumped in the car alongside them. This led to a very cramped environment, with everyone pressed against everyone else, Harry's head being stuck in George's armpit and the window. Ginny was sitting opposite Harry, looking as cramped as he felt, and the other twin squishing her into her mother. Mr Weasley was prodding the little buttons that made the windows go up and down and the sunroof open excitedly as Fred passed Mr and Mrs Granger flutes of champagne. Ginny smiled weakly at him as they stopped suddenly at a traffic light, causing much pain and much wincing for everyone in the car.

"What project will you move onto next mum?" George asked imploringly, as Fred handed her a glass which she downed in one. "More grandkids, and attempt at stopping Percy being a prat, or are you going to try and sell Ginny off to some poor bloke?"

At this, one twin stared pointedly at Harry while the other nudged him hard in the ribs.

"You're not going to sell me off to anyone," Ginny told her mother huffily. "Maybe she should work at you two to grow up a bit."

"Somehow," Mr Granger smiled, "I have a feeling that's not likely to happen."

"It seems you know my sons well," Mr Weasley grinned at his muggle counterpart. "And can you explain how exactly do these windows work? Ekeltricity, yes?" Mr Granger started telling him about the wires, Mr Weasley nodding along happily.

"I think," Mrs Weasley told her fellow passengers loudly, "that my next project should be Harry." Upon hearing his name, Harry swallowed loudly.

"What have I done?" He asked in a little voice, causing the twins to snicker.

"Nothing, dear," She smiled at him. "I'm just curious about this girlfriend of yours that has been mentioned. Is she going to be here today?" Ginny froze next to her mother.

"Why yes she is," Fred smirked at Harry. "I could introduce you two if you like."

"She's a _lovely_ girl," George said genially, reaching over to pat his mother on the arm.

"But you're not going to," Harry told them firmly.

"Why not?" Fred teased him openly. "I could tell everyone right now."

"And boy, would the rest of this trip be fun," George went on sarcastically. Ginny stomped on his only slightly discretely.

"But you're not going to," Harry repeated, "because Ron and Hermione told you that you were free to tell everyone _after the wedding_."

He sipped from the glass that had been just handed to him. "The reception still counts as part of the wedding." He smirked as he saw Ginny glaring gleefully at George.

"Have you actually worked it out with the girlfriend yet?" Fred asked, subtly monitoring his little sister. "Or do we just refer to her as The Girlfriend because we all know that's how it is going to end up?"

"Well, I haven't asked her out, really," Harry mused, smiling slightly at Mrs Weasley's rapt attention. "I didn't even ask her out when we were together at Hogwarts even. I probably should."

"Oh, it's _that_ girl," Ginny said brightly to him, faking a sudden understanding convincingly. Fred and George recoiled in shock; to them, this was almost as if their sister was confessing their undying love. "I didn't realise it was her."

"I thought you knew already," Harry smiled at her as the twins glared at them both.

"I had my suspicions," she explained loudly, noticing her mother now following her closely. "But I didn't want to ask; I knew it was a bit of a touchy subject when you two broke up."

"You know The Girlfriend?" Mrs Weasley asked her daughter, causing the twins to chuckle quietly before, simultaneously, Harry and Ginny both elbowed them in the sides.

"Yeah," Ginny told her mother, ignoring her brothers. "She's really pretty," she went on flatteringly.

"I know," Harry nodded gushingly. "She's so pretty." Ginny bit her lip to hide her smile.

"And she's really lucky to have you, Harry."

"Naah," Harry smiled widely, causing the twins to cringe. "I'm the lucky one to have her."

She considered him for a moment.

"I'll tell her you said that."

"Please do," He grinned. Fred made vomiting motions to his brother, something that went unnoticed by everyone but Mrs Granger, who, surprisingly just winked and tapped her nose at Harry.

"While Harry's love life seems to be a riveting topic," Mrs Granger said loudly. "I think we have arrived at our destination."

"Thank Merlin," George sighed. "I don't think I can feel my toes." The door to the limo slid open and the Grangers practically fell out, followed by the Weasley parents. As Ginny, the twins and him also scuttled around the seats to get to the door, Harry noted with a groan, there were more photographers here then there were waiting at the church.

"Fun," Fred said brightly, grinning widely between his sister and Harry. The four of them all slid out of the limo, and upon seeing Harry, the hoards of reporters reacted predictably, voices yelling, cameras flashing. Mr and Mrs Granger and Weasley walked inside quickly.

"Mr Potter, Mr Potter, over here for a moment please, if you wouldn't mind."

"Pose for one photo please Mr Potter."

"Harry, how do you feel about your best friends' marriage? Is it this exclusion that has driven you to your drug filled, homeless rampage?"

"That's a new one," he muttered to Ginny sidelong as Fred and George grinned at him, shaking their heads.

"Give 'em a photo Harry," Fred said, pulling him to his side. George grabbed Ginny, and forced her into the frame with Harry and his twin.

Only slightly reluctantly, Harry put his arm around Ginny's waist and drew her in close to him for the photo. Harry inhaled her flowery scent, and didn't have to fake a smile as Ginny put one of her arms around his waist. The twins took this opportunity to step out of the way for the photographers.

The cameras flickered madly at them, more questions being fired off, not just at Harry but at a slightly seething Ginny too.

"Are you dating Ms Weasley, Mr Potter?"

"Have you found a job yet, Harry?"

"Ms Weasley, what are your intentions with Mr Potter?"

Pulling away from him once the photo was taken, for show Ginny shrugged her shoulders, Harry following suit and laughing, acting in a way that he hoped would make the photographers and reporters second guess the relationship that they had just decided on.

Despite the fact that Ginny knew that once it got out her and Harry were together then she would be treated in a similar way to Ron and Hermione by the newspapers, Harry wanted to keep it quiet for as long as possible, wanting to save her from the hassle of people taking photos of her wherever she went.

"Nice," George said as the four of them trotted off into the foyer of the building where the reception was. The Weasleys and Grangers seemed to have moved into the main hall where the reception was being held; Harry could hear voices already in there, and a peek through the door saw a bunch of circular tables and one rectangular one decorated in green and purple, balloons hovering around and Fred and George's fireworks going off in each corner occasionally. How they were going to get that past the Muggles, Harry had no idea.

"You told us we could tell people after the wedding," Fred said. "And now the whole world will know." He smiled sweetly at the two.

"After the wedding of course," his twin finished for him.

"You're the world's biggest prats," Ginny said grumpily, tugging at her dress. "Just taken over from Percy you two have. Did you consider for a moment that there was a reason why we didn't want people to know?"

"So you two can snog in private and no-one will care?" George tried. Ginny glared at him.

"No, actually," Ginny said, sounding peeved.

"Well, you should," Fred said, stopping just out of view of the people in the reception hall. "Potter, while we don't care if you snog our sister in private, if you do it in front of us-"

"We might just have to hurt you," George went on sympathetically, patting Harry on the shoulder, as if he were only obliged to act this way because Ginny was his kid sister, something Harry picked up on immediately as something which would irritate her. "And as soon as Mum knows about this, she'll start naming your kids."

"So we're giving you tonight to think of a scheme that will somehow make Molly Weasley leave you two alone for a bit," Fred finished.

Harry looked around quickly, and seeing that no-one could see them, he pressed a quick kiss to the side of Ginny's mouth, before looking defiantly up at the twins, daring them to say or do something. They didn't, just clenched their fists, clearly irritated, and stormed into the reception hall.

"Oh, you're so brave," Ginny said sarcastically as they followed the twins into the cavernous room. Harry remembered from Hermione's seating arrangement charts that the two of them were sitting with at the bride and grooms table with the Weasley and Granger parents. "My hero."

"I do my best," Harry said in mock masculinity.

"You just wanted to snog me, didn't you?" She laughed, slapping his shoulder. He nodded with a greedy grin on his face.

"I think I might go talk to Hagrid for a bit," said Harry quickly, "I haven't seen him for a while. Talk to you later?" Ginny nodded vaguely and headed off towards where Luna and Neville were sitting.

Harry wandered over to where his half-giant friend sat at a table with Lupin, Tonks, Professor McGonagall and Kingsley Shacklebolt. "Hey Hagrid, everyone."

"Harry!" Hagrid boomed when he saw Harry and seized the smaller man into a brief, one armed hug. "How are yer? I haven't seen yer in ages!"

"Which is precisely why I came over," Harry told him, kneeling down in the small space between him and Shacklebolt, who smiled toothily at him. "How have you been since, oh November? Busy? How's Grawp?"

"He's going wonderfully," Hagrid said. "Wanted to come today, but I had ter tell him that the Muggles wouldn't like that. But otherwise, not busy. Just helping with get'n Hogwarts ready for re-opening in September."

"That's good," Harry nodded at him.

"I take it yer've been busy and tha's why yer haven't wrote," Hagrid said to him, his black eyes glinting at Harry cheekily.

"I think lazy is a better way to put it, Hagrid," Tonks teased him. Harry glared at her, causing her to smirk at him. "Wotcher."

"How are things going anyway, Harry?" Lupin asked him, smiling benignly, his dress robes only slightly shabbier than those of the people around him. Harry met his eyes and Lupin smiled at him broadly.

"Things are very good, thanks," Harry said brightly, ignoring Lupin's all-knowing stare.

"Have you got a job yet?" Tonks asked him conversationally. Harry groaned.

"How come that's all people ever ask me?"

"That's not all I question you about," Lupin told him. "Would you prefer me to start on the other thing?" Kingsley smirked into his glass goblet.

Trying to act oblivious to what Lupin was on about, Harry went on. "I've got an idea of what I should do now, so that's going okay for the bit."

"Oh, Remus, he's blushing!" Tonks exclaimed brightly, ignoring Harry's attempt to change the subject. She screwed up her face to make it change to the red that Harry's was quickly becoming, clashing horribly with her pink hair.

"Ah, I see we are moving on to Miss Weasley now," Professor McGonagall stated primly.

Harry gaped at this, at the sheer audacity of his former professors, his elders in general and their well... teasing, playful behaviour. When he started Hogwarts, it was a surprise to Harry when McGonagall smiled, and he never would have guessed that ten years later she would be teasing him about his love life.

"This is when I leave," he said, standing up.

"Come on Harry," said Kingsley in his deep, booming voice. "Everyone knew this was going to happen." Hagrid nodded his massive head at this.

"Thanks for telling me," Harry grumbled at them. "Would have saved me a lot of effort."

"So you did make up with Ginny then?" Tonks questioned him.

"Yeah." He squirmed slightly under their gaze.

"But back to you apparently doing something with yourself," Lupin said after an awkward pause, reverting to what Harry had said in an attempt to be left alone. "Care to elaborate?"

"Is it Ginny who prompted you to make an effort?" Tonks asked him excitedly, accidently knocking over her goblet of water. "Because that would be very cute."

"Well, she gave me the idea," Harry half grunted, clearly uncomfortable with this attention. "And I actually suppose I should talk to a few of you later, you know, getting opinions and such."

"On what, Harry?" Kingsley asked him calmly. Harry shook his hand.

"I'll come talk to you all about it later," Harry told them lightly, pinching one of the bread rolls that were lying in the basket on the table. "It's still a very vague idea. I think it's good though."

"I'm sure it is Harry," Hagrid said, eating an entire baguette as if it were a crouton.

"Especially if Ginny inspired it," Tonks' smirk matched her boyfriends at this.

"Don't say it too loudly," Harry told her in an angry whisper. "Someone might hear!"

"I take it that you haven't informed the family of your relationship with their daughter then?" Professor McGonagall pressed him. "I don't think Molly would be impressed."

"Well, the twins are telling them all tomorrow," Harry said. "So tonight me and Ginny are trying to think up a way of escaping Mrs Weasley's... well-"

"Nagging?" Tonks supplied lightly. "You can say it. It's worked horrible wonders for her."

"Er, right, well, I'd better go sit down," Harry said awkwardly, noticing everyone had started to take their seats in preparation for Ron and Hermione's arrival. "Just remember, no-one tells any Weasley about this conversation." He felt ridiculously odd giving this group of people instructions.

"Have fun," Lupin smiled at him, nodding his head reassuringly. Harry rolled his eyes and worked his way to his table at the other side of the room, several of his old Hogwarts peers waving to him.

"I just had the weirdest conversation," he told Ginny, shaking his head as he sat down opposite her and next to the empty the seats at the head of the table which were reserved for Ron and Hermione.

"Me too," Ginny said cheerfully, who looked up from the menu she had been vaguely examining. "I was chatting with Luna, what's your excuse?"

Glancing to see that the Weasley and Granger parents were involved in their own conversation, he lowered his voice and leaned over the table to whisper to her, "Lupin, McGonagall, questioning me about you."

"I think my conversation with Luna trumps that," she told him, smiling.

Just as he begun to ask her why, he was cut off by tumultuous applause; Ron and Hermione had just arrived. Hands clasped, they both blushed at the attention, but were also grinning widely as they sat down in their seats next to Harry and Ginny respectively. As soon as they did, bowls of soup were bought out by waiters in muggle suits. Many of the wizards in attendance looked shocked at this, just expecting their food to pop up at them.

"Did you even try to brush your hair?" Hermione asked Harry defeatedly, eyeing his hair as the newlyweds sat down.

"It didn't work very well," he told her, slightly defensively as both Ron and Ginny snorted loudly.

* * *

Soup came and went without a hitch, as did dinner, Mr Granger standing up halfway through it to make a speech that went down very well. Before Harry knew it, everyone was halfway through their pudding and he was being prodded by Ron, given significant looks by Hermione and was handed a muggle style microphone. Ginny grinned at him as he stood up awkwardly.

"Hey everyone," Harry said nervously, interrupting the chatter of dinner. People put down their cutlery with a little cling and all turned to face him. Slightly self-consciously, he went on. "Hi."

"Hi, Harry," Fred bellowed, causing a small peel of laughter.

"Well, as one of the twins just told you, I'm Harry," he said after taking a deep breath.

"You don't think," George called sarcastically. Harry glared at them both calmly.

"And as the other just pointed out, chances are you already know that," Harry said, running a hand through his hair as his nerves subsided slightly and a few more laughed. "And as you probably also know, Ron and Hermione are my best friends. The three of us have been pretty much joined at the hip since we were about this tall," he held his hand around his navel, "and spoke like this," he added in a high pitched voice, causing a smatter of appreciative laughter.

"I mean," Harry went on heartily, "they didn't even have to ask me to be Best Man today. Everyone assumed I would be; I would have been rather insulted if I wasn't, and I think they just figured I would and it was without question. It's probably a bit presumptuous on all parts, but oh well.

"When Hermione told me that part of being Best Man was to make a speech though, I was rather anxious, so I asked her what I was meant to talk about. In basics, her answer was 'say nice things about us in front of people'," Harry told the room at large, now managing to articulate what he had prepared in his head. "That was in itself a bit of a problem, because what do I honestly say about them?"

"Oh," Hermione moaned quietly, tilting her head to one side, holding Ron's hand and smiling up at Harry sadly. He smiled back at the two of them.

"Us three have literally been to hell and back together," Harry informed. "So I can't really stand up here and gush about how they are the best friends anyone could ever have, even though they are." He reached down and ruffled Ron's hair playfully.

"The other day I was stuck with a horrible thought," said Harry still smiling at them affectionately. "It occurred to me, when they got married, it'll completely cut me from our little trio. It bothered me to begin with, that everything has now turned from Harry, Ron and Hermione to Ron and Hermione, with Harry." He smiled. "Well, I know what that means anyway. I figured that it meant that I would be suddenly excluded from everything, that instead of it being the three of us, it would just be them two and me as an after thought."

"But then I realised that I'm okay with that," he said. "It's always been like that anyway, it's often been two of us and the third in some way. And it's normally been me, anyway. This is just making it official." He grinned further. "So I'm ridiculously happy for them."

"The fact is that I can't condense what they actually mean to me into a little five minute speech, so I'm not going to try." He paused dramatically for a moment. "I'll just tell a couple of embarrassing stories instead."

The tension in the room broke into laughter; Harry could clearly hear one of the twins loudly exclaim "that'a boy, Harry", prompting more. Harry took this chance to glance at Ginny, who was smiling up at him appreciatively, then poked her tongue out at him slightly.

"You have to pay attention though," Harry told his audience once the laughter had died down. "Believe it or not, there is a point behind these stories. They are going to show you how much people really change over ten odd years." He paused again. "I like to call this one 'When Ron met Hermione'."

"Like many significant things in both of their lives, I was there when they met," Harry smiled. "Me and Ron were sitting in our compartment on our first train ride to school, having just met. Ron was stuffing himself stupid with Chocolate Frogs. Let this be the best example of how much Ron has changed, and as Harry looked over at him, Ron had his dessert spoon hanging out of his mouth." More laughter.

"Next thing we know, a heap of bushy brown hair bursts into out compartment," Harry went on. He could feel Ginny's eyes on the back of his neck watching him, and it spurned him on. "And, ever so bossily, she asks us if we've seen a toad, because Neville's lost Trevor." At this, several people turned to look at a slightly red Neville, who was sitting at a table with Dean, Seamus, Luna and the Patil twins. "Me and Ron quickly inform her that we haven't, and just as Hermione is about to leave, she looks at me and goes excitedly 'I know who you are, you're Harry Potter. I've read about you'," Harry turned to smirk at Ron and Hermione, both who looked thoroughly embarrassed already, though not entirely displeased as many people again laughed, this time at Hermione's expense.

"Hermione then went on to lecture us for five minutes about what house she wanted to get sorted into," Harry continued, rolling his eyes. "After she left, Ron turns to me scathingly. I wish that I could say that it was love at first sight for these two, that Ron said something along the lines of 'I'm going to marry that girl', or 'I love her already', but I would be lying if I said that."

"Ron turns to me and he said 'Whatever house I'm in, I hope she's not in it'."

Harry said it rather hurriedly as if he were peeling of a healing potion, turning to see that Hermione was quite affronted, and Ron at least had the decency to look rather sheepish at this revelation. Harry waited a moment as the guests laughed, again stealing a glance at Ginny, who was also laughing, her eyes twinkling merrily at Harry. He thought it was the happiest he'd seen her since when they were going out back at Hogwarts, and that was something he was extremely glad to see.

"Everyone knows how these two fight," Harry went on after the giggles had died down once again. "They'll bicker about anything; schoolwork, cats, Quidditch and even me once or twice. But there were two topics, or I should say two people who got them fired up most." Harry grinned. "Lavender Brown and Viktor Krum, both sitting on a table over that way,"

He shook his hand in the general direction of where he knew Krum and Lavender were conveniently sitting at the same table. Lavender blushed and looked only very mildly irritated at the attention.

"This next story I like to call 'The Year Ron and Hermione Didn't Talk version two'," Harry said brightly. He was quelled with glares from the newlyweds. "Actually, I won't. I'm getting death glares here," he added shamefacedly. "And this isn't really a nice story." He turned to face the couple, crouching slightly to whisper to them

"Can I tell them about the time you turned into a cat?" Harry asked Hermione, lowering the microphone so most people couldn't hear. "Or the time you burped up slugs everywhere, Ron?" As a duo, they shook their heads. Ginny smirked between the three of them.

"They've just cancelled half my stories," Harry said at large, shaking his head as he brought the microphone back up to his mouth. "What can I say then?" He asked away from the microphone.

"Nice things!" Hermione told him slightly angrily.

"I've been told to say nice things again," Harry told everyone. "Which kind of leaves me at a loss of words." He looked around the room, searching for a stroke of inspiration that he didn't find. "Mainly because I can't truly explain how awesome these two are."

"So to Ron and Hermione," Harry said awkwardly, raising his glass of elf made wine in the air. "In hopes that they might let me tell these embarrassing stories to their kids when I'm seedy Uncle Harry who spends way too much time at their house." Harry lowered and drained his glass, sitting back down to a splattering of enthusiastic applause. Fred and George were coming across rather clearly with their jeering.

"Since when have you been funny?" Ron asked Harry, rolling his eyes at his best mate.

"I think I preferred you when you were broody fifth year," Hermione told him darkly. Harry and Ginny both laughed openly at this.

"Didn't like the speech?" Harry asked them teasingly.

"I thought it was lovely, Harry dear," Mrs Granger said to him from next to Ginny, smiling across the table at him.

"It started off nice before he decided to publically embarrass us!" Hermione exclaimed, though now Harry had sat down, he noticed that she wasn't really overly mad at him, just rather peeved.

"I was joking around, Hermione," Harry groaned at her, digging back into his half-eaten pudding. Ginny smiled at him and rubbed his shin with her foot under the table, letting him know that she at least appreciated the humour behind his speech.

"Does that mean you're going to tell us the rest of the story then?" Mr Granger asked him, eyes twinkling in his daughter and new son-in-law's direction.

"Please, do tell Harry," Mr Weasley requested as Harry's feet fiddled with Ginny's, who was smirking at him over the table. She pushed back against his feet as he tried to shove hers under her chair and put his feet on her lap.

"He's not going to, Dad," Ron said, sounding irritated as Ginny nudged away Harry's foot and put one of hers in his lap.

"I could though," Harry teased his best friends Ginny's foot teased him, running across his leg.

"You won't though, mate, or I'll start on all the stories about you," Ron poked his shoulder with his fork as Harry subtly put one of his hands under the table cloth that was covering his and Ginny's game of footsies, his cold fingers playfully running over the top of her foot which was revealed by her pale green ballet flats. Her unoccupied foot kicked Harry's teasingly.

"The only good one you have about me is the one that Fred and George have already claimed telling rights over," Harry laughed at both Ron and also how Ginny was squirming at the contact of his hand on her foot.

"I have one, but I'm not going to say," Hermione said conversationally, causing Harry to glare at her suddenly. Ginny's foot slipped, and Harry was fairly sure it was because Ginny was thinking about the same story as he was, the one about the aftermath of her eldest brothers wedding.

"Is it the one I'm thinking of?" Harry asked her slightly aggressively, having just seen Ginny freeze up over the table. "Because you're not allowed to tell that one."

"No, tell, Hermione," Mrs Weasley pressed her, excitedly. "Tell us!" Hermione risked a chance glance at Harry, who was looking rather livid, and Ginny, who was looking rather pale.

"Do I know this story?" Ron asked Harry suspiciously. "Do I want to?"

"You don't know it," Harry told him quickly. "You don't really want to know, either, but I suppose Hermione might feel inclined to tell you at some stage." Harry shuddered at the thought of being anywhere near Ron if he found out, a shudder Ron mirrored.

"If you say I don't want to know, then I really, really don't want to know," he said, still looking at Harry slightly suspiciously, but glancing quickly at his sister.

"Good, because I don't fancy telling it," Hermione told him warily. "You would find it highly interesting."

"Tell me about it in," Ron paused to think. "Three years maybe?" Hermione nodded to him, rolling her eyes at a less than impressed Ginny.

"Do you have any idea of what these three are on about?" Mrs Granger asked Ginny, who turned suddenly when being addressed.

"Not really," She openly lied, shaking her head. Harry, Ron and Hermione all smirked slightly at this, knowing that she knew what was going on quite well. Harry reached his foot out, scrambling to find hers, hoping to rekindle the foot romance.

"It's not very important," Hermione told her parents and in-laws, rolling her eyes.

Harry found a foot at where he guessed Ginny's feet should be, and scuffed the toes up slightly, then running the side of his shoe up the leg, looking across at her with a teasing smirk.

Very suddenly, Harry felt his foot go flying under the table, and when Ginny showed no inclination of noticing anything, Harry looked around wildly only to see a livid Ron, who was glaring at Harry. Blushing, he quickly withdrew his feet and hid his face in his goblet, making excuses not to look at Ron for the rest of the meal.

* * *

A/N: feedback is loved!


	13. The Wedding and The Girlfriend Part Two

**Fix You**

A/N: I said I'd finish before DH. Quite clearly, I didn't. I tried, and tried, but I don't really care that this is now AU. DH was awesome, and leaves soooo much for fics open. I hope everyone enjoys this, as it is the last chapter before the epilogue. Thanks to all reviewers and to Carla for betaing.

* * *

**Chapter Thirteen – The Wedding and The Girlfriend, Part Two.**

The rest of dinner passed in a flurry of nonsensical chatter about everything from Quidditch to kumquats. Harry spent the whole time sharing significant looks with Ginny, something that did not go unnoticed by Ron and Hermione. They both seemed to be a mixture of pleased and irritated; surely it was not the Maid of Honour and Best Man that should be flirting shamelessly at their wedding over dinner.

Harry had been looking around the room; the Weasley twins were sharing a table with the Chasers from their Quidditch team and Lee Jordan. Neville was chatting with Luna and Pavarti a few tables over, and, as Harry had briefly mentioned in his speech as Best Man, Viktor Krum and Lavender Brown had been placed strategically at the same table by their ex-partners.

Bill, his son Robbie and a newly pregnant Fleur, along with Charlie and his long term girlfriend that Harry had met at Christmas, Rebecca, were sitting at a table with two people who were obviously Weasley cousins, and two empty seats, which were designated for Percy and his girlfriend Penelope Clearwater. Even though Percy didn't RSVP, Molly still had high hopes that he would turn up.

Before Harry knew it, the waiters were coming around to collect the dessert bowls, and the four piece wedding band was striking up into a slow song, Ron and Hermione were getting up to start the dancing.

"Oh," Mrs Weasley sighed, and Harry noticed with embarrassment that all four of the parents sitting at the table were tearing up as they watched Ron and Hermione dance. He subtly pointed it out to Ginny, who also looked uncomfortable. "They're so sweet together."

"I'd say they're revolting," Ginny whispered, rolling her eyes. Harry snorted into his hand.

"I heard that, Ginevra Molly Weasley," Mrs Weasley scolded her. "You should be happy for him, not insulting him when he can't hear it."

"I'm not insulting Ron; I'm sympathising with Hermione," Ginny explained to her mother sublimely, grinning at Harry. "He burps, he farts, he snores and smells like boy... and now she's managed to get stuck with it."

"Is your lack of tolerance why you didn't bring a date tonight?" Mrs Weasley questioned her harshly, causing a slight smirk from Harry. "Perhaps, young lady, you're just feeling jealous of your brother's happiness because you don't have a significant other."

"Trust me, I'm not jealous," Ginny told her, closing her eyes, her foot reaching across to nudge Harry's, who recoiled at this contact, reminded of his earlier run in with Ron when he searched for Ginny's feet with his own.

"Are you going to dance with some people in hopes of finding a potential boyfriend?"

"Probably not," Ginny said dryly, flicking some dust off the table carelessly and glancing at her brother and best friend who were grinning widely at each other as they danced.

"You have to dance with me for the first dance, Gin," Harry reminded Ginny. "Otherwise, Hermione is going to hex us both."

"Are you going to dance with The Girlfriend, Harry?" Mrs Weasley asked, turning from her daughter to him. Harry shrugged.

"Maybe. Probably not. I'm not a dancing person."

"Sure you are," Ginny told him as the song finished and many people applauded the couple before flocking out onto the dance floor. "C'mon."

She got up and tugged on Harry's shoulder. Attempting to fake reluctance, Harry got up and Ginny dragged him by the elbow to the middle of the dance floor.

"You're rather aggressive," Harry noted as they begun swaying to the new song, his hands resting on her hips lightly, hers on his shoulders and around his neck.

"I just _had_ to get away from my Mum," Ginny sighed. "I swear, she's driving me insane, especially with all that 'The Girlfriend' stuff. It's enough to make me want to just yell at her that it's me." Harry chuckled at this.

"I can't believe that she hasn't picked up on it yet," he sighed. "What, with what you were going on about in the car, and the whole pseudo flirting thing going on."

"And the footsies," Ginny grinned up at him. Harry shook his head shuddering, clearly scarred by the footsies run in.

"Halfway through dessert, I was looking for yours," he told her, "but I found Ron."

"Is that why you were blushing?"

Harry nodded, grinning widely at her laughter.

"My feet aren't that big," she complained to him.

"I just figured it would be your feet I find near you," Harry told her. She shook her head at him.

"Though speaking of Ron," Ginny muttered. "He's looking at us."

Glancing over his shoulder, he saw that Ron and Hermione were indeed watching them, talking in hushed voices. Harry waved openly at them, but clearly unabashed, they just grinned further at Harry and Ginny.

"They're probably just noticing how beautiful you are," Harry muttered in a husky, low whisper. "And you smell really good, too." It was true; his nostrils were filling with the flowery scent which was inexplicably Ginny. She giggled and stepped in a fair bit closer to him.

"You don't scrub up bad yourself."

They swayed together in a comfortable silence.

"Do..." Harry asked her pensively, so softly Ginny struggled to hear him. "Do you want all this?" He motioned around with his head.

"All what?"

"Like a wedding and stuff," Harry growled in a low voice. Ginny looked up at him and smiled widely at his clear discomfort.

"Is that a proposal?"

"No," Harry insisted quietly. "More just, I dunno, finding out what you want."

"Doing research?" She asked, eyes glinting as she grinned at him. He laughed quietly.

"You could say that, I guess."

"Well, I do," Ginny said, answering his original question. "Not this big though. Something small and low key; just us, Hermione, my brothers, Mum and Dad, Hagrid, Lupin, Tonks, Luna and Neville maybe." Harry grinned at this.

"Me too," Harry admitted to her. "Just a few people, and we won't tell them about it beforehand. We'll invite them to lunch, then we don't turn up and Hedwig sends them a portkey, and they take it to wherever we are. You know, no fussing like your Mum was doing over today. You know, just do it and get it over and done with. I mean," Harry went on quickly, "I don't really care overly much just as long as you're there." The song finished and a new one started, but they didn't separate.

"You've thought about this, haven't you?" Ginny giggled, eyebrows raised as she pinched the back of his neck.

"Four years running around the entire country while Ron and Hermione pretend to hide their snogging gives you lots of time to think," Harry told her, rolling his eyes as he pinched her side in revenge, smirking as she squirmed.

"So that wasn't a proposal then?" Ginny asked him.

"It will be one day," He assured her.

"Soon?" she pressed. Harry rolled his eyes.

"You think I want to waste anymore time?" The question was clearly rhetoric. "This is the happiest I can remember being for a really, really long time. Ever really."

"Me too," Ginny said quietly, looking at him the same way she had after the Quidditch final back at Hogwarts; it was the same way she had looked at him several times during their relationship, notably after Dumbledore's funeral.

The look was blazing, and it was as if she could see right through him, like he kept an invisibility cloak over his thoughts and emotions, but Ginny could whip it off at will, leaving him naked, vulnerable and at a complete understanding just for that brief moment. It was exhilarating, thrilling, and Harry thought that everything they had been struggling with, every problem they had discovered with their relationship as a result of their four year break, would be worth it just for that moment. The moment that made the world go 'round and everything was inexplicably... _good_.

Maybe they wouldn't always understand each other perfectly, they would fight and they would scream; he would always be overly noble and she would always be ridiculously stubborn, but it wouldn't matter as long as she would look at him like that.

She was addictive, and had caught him in well and truly. She was everything that he knew he could ever want with just one gaze. This addiction was one he would never truly understand, one that he didn't really know as much about as he should, considering the time he had spent mooning over it, but Harry was sure of one thing; he would never get over it, and he never wanted to try.

She grinned widely at him, pulling him away from his thoughts before suddenly looking away, breaking their fiery gaze. "Me too," she repeated to his shoulder. Harry squeezed her waist again, trying to get her attention. She groaned at him softly.

"I really want to kiss you right now," she told him huffily. "And I can't do that, unfortunately."

"Damn people everywhere," Harry sighed, agreeing with her by a simple grin. "You, me, foyer, fifteen minutes?"

"You're on," she smirked, looking back at him cheekily.

"Good," was all Harry could reply with.

"Okay, this is starting to get really weird," Ginny told him quietly after a moment. "Heaps of people keep looking at us. Ron and Hermione, Lupin and Tonks. Hagrid."

"Half the people we went to school with," Harry told her, noticing this also. "Your mum. Some guy I don't know who's dancing with Hannah Abbot keeps staring at you, the twins look as though they are about to – hey!" He almost fell over as Ginny steered them across the floor and far from the spot they previously were. "What's up?"

"I..." she cleared her throat. "I know that guy dancing with Hannah," She nodded her head significantly, opening her eyes widely at him, urging him to think.

"Oh," Harry said quietly, glancing at the staring brown haired man dancing with Hannah. "Oh." He understood what she meant exactly. She _knew_ him. Quite well too by the sound of it. Harry's gut squirmed slightly at the thought of this; this sudden shock from the ridiculous happiness that had been consuming him since their previous conversation.

"Sorry," Ginny mumbled, putting her forehead on Harry's shoulder so she wouldn't have to meet his eyes. "I'm so sorry. I'm more sorry than you could ever know. I-"

"Don't worry about it," Harry mumbled weakly. "Do... do you want me to hex him or something?" Ginny blinked as she looked up at Harry, who tried to smile at her as if he was joking.

"Don't." She answered after a pregnant pause. "Let it be I think, don't tickle the sleeping dragon..." She trailed off. "Just don't leave me alone near him, I don't want to talk to him."

"I can keep an eye or two on you," Harry teased her softly as the song ended.

* * *

"I had always hoped they would get together," Molly Weasley told Hermione's mother, Jane, mournfully as they watched Ginny dancing with Harry, her eyes lingering for this moment off Ron and Hermione, who were swaying out of time to the music a few meters away, staring at the others face fascinated. "She had the biggest crush on him for the longest time. Unfortunately, I have a feeling that any of my hopes for green-eyed grandbabies is now gone."

Molly sighed as her daughter grinned widely, laughing at Harry, her eyes twinkling. She had just watched her youngest son get married, but instead of the usual anxiety that she had expected from seeing Ron as grown man, she now wanted nothing more than to see her daughter as happy as her brother.

"Hermione told me about how Ginny was so besotted by him," Jane said from next to her husband Frank.

"From what Hermione has told us, everyone expected them to get together at some stage," said Mr Granger attentively. "I wonder why they haven't?" He added in a mock thoughtful afterthought. His wife shot him a significant glare of warning.

"They're both stubborn," Mrs Weasley said.

"It's a shame they don't get together," Mr Weasley said, carefully not looking at his wife. "Harry's the only boy that would ever be good enough for Ginny in the eyes of her brothers." He didn't say anything more, remaining purposefully vague.

"In my eyes too," his wife told him, watching her daughter and the boy that could be her son, intently. "There's something there, despite The Girlfriend. Even if they say they are just friends, I'll make them come around."

"Molly," He said warningly. "You've been saying that for years. Are you going to break up Harry and The Girlfriend, then manipulate a relationship between him and our daughter?"

"Someone has to!" she exclaimed guiltlessly to her husband. The Grangers snickered quietly at this.

"I'm not entirely sure if that's a good idea," Mr Weasley said, wiping his glasses on his sleeve, knowing that arguing with his wife was useless. The song finished, and Mrs Weasley's eyes stalked Harry and Ginny as together they walked over to a table of people they obviously both knew from school. The Lovegood girl was there, chatting to the Longbottom boy and the Indian twins. Was one of them The Girlfriend? She was off to find out.

"First, I have to figure out who she is," she told her husband. "Don't fret, Arthur. I'll be back later." She waddled off to where they had just sat down and were both chatting to friends.

"I happen to know who the girlfriend is," Mrs Granger said, smirking as soon as Mrs Weasley was out of earshot.

"It's rather hard to miss it," Mr Granger told Arthur.

Mr Weasley sighed. He knew his daughter, and he didn't think he had ever seen her as happy as she had been mere minutes ago, dancing and smiling almost stupidly up at an also beaming Harry. He, like his wife, had always been expecting a romantic attachment between the two, even from the first time he saw the awkward, skinny boy sitting at his table at the tender age of twelve, and he knew he was going to painfully watch his only daughter fall more hopelessly in love with him than she already was.

"Molly is hindered by her own insistence," Mr Weasley sighed again, looking over to his wife, who was spying on Ginny and Harry from behind a large fern. Harry also seemed to have noticed this, and wandered off to see Hagrid and Lupin again. "She wants to know who The Girlfriend is so much she is blinding herself from truth. She sees what is there and only recognises it for what she wants. As if the little conversation they had in the car wasn't enough." The Grangers shook their heads, both also wearing a smile.

Mr Granger snorted dryly, looking at his daughter and her new husband, clearly so enthralled in dancing with each other that they didn't realise that the band was having a break, and were still swaying in an intimate embrace. "Ain't young love grand?"

"Why don't you tell her?" Mrs Granger asked Arthur, ignoring her husband. Mr Weasley shrugged.

"She'll realise eventually," Mr Weasley said resignedly. "And also to save Ginny and Harry from her hassling for tonight at least. We'll just let them keep pretending that they're good liars I think."

He watched his daughter subtly sneak a glance at her mother, who had trailed Harry to the table of Lupin and co., where she had sat down and seemed to be interrogating a blush from Harry that would almost put a Weasley to shame. Judging by the looks on his older Order fellows faces, they were finding that conversation nearly as amusing as Harry found it uncomfortable.

* * *

"Harry?" Ginny called quietly into the foyer of the reception hall twenty minutes later, the late afternoon sun streaming in through the small windows. She looked around the empty room expectantly; she was later than she had originally said she would be, and figured Harry would be here already. She walked towards the entrance doors, peeking through them to thankfully see that the bevy of reporters and photographers that had been there before had all left.

She tapped her foot a little impatiently. Harry's lateness was cutting into their limited snogging time by talking to Hagrid and Tonks. She was tired of waiting to kiss him; she had wanted to pretty much every single time she had seen him that day, whether it was when he stood there whispering to Ron as she helped Hermione out of the car, or during their dance. A couple of months ago, Ginny was furious at the idea of being forced to dance with him, but when the wedding had actually rolled around, it had been like a bottle of Felix Felicis in disguise. Ginny found that being with Harry was like having that rush of calm the Felix gave, being able to do whatever and knowing it would work out okay.

She had rather enjoyed spending the entire day flirting with him unabashedly without having people comment. She knew what her family was like, especially when it came to Harry, so being able to flirt with Harry in front of Ron and the twins openly was something that would only ever happen rarely, if at all, so Ginny was taking this chance to annoy them.

She was also trying to take advantage of her mother's obliviousness, but felt slightly guilty about deceiving her to give herself and Harry an easier time. Like the rest of the world, Ginny loved her mum, she knew that her mum loved Harry, and she also knew that while her mother would be rather annoying and overbearing once hearing of their relationship, she would also be a little upset that she hadn't been told about it. Ginny tried to edge away this little thought from the back of her mind; her mother would find out soon enough. She also couldn't help but ignore it because somehow dangling her relationship with Harry in front of everyone but just out of their reach was slightly exhilarating.

What wasn't exhilarating was waiting for Harry to come join her for their much anticipated snog session. Slightly bored, she looked up and began examining what must have been light bulbs as she tapped her foot to the muffled music that was coming from the hall.

After a moment, Ginny seized up as a pair of arms snaked their way around her waist uncomfortably.

"Hello," she said to who she assumed was Harry, sounding slightly detached.

"Hello," replied an unfamiliar voice that most definitely not Harry's. It was a bit deeper than and had a tone of voice attached to it that Harry most definitely would not use with her; this person was clearly speaking down to her. She quickly tugged away, turning to face the person, slightly panicked.

"Hello, Ginny," the voice repeated.

"Hi," Ginny said shortly as she came face to face with the person she was talking to Harry about before. "What are you doing here Jeremy?"

"You know Hannah Abbot?" The man named Jeremy asked her seedily, running a hand through his slightly greasy brown hair. "I'm here as her date."

"I know that," Ginny said darkly, reaching for her wand, which was stowed away in the pocket of her dress, which Hermione thought would be helpful. She made a mental note to thank the bride for that later. "I saw you dancing with her. What are you doing _here_ though?"

Eyebrows were raised. "No need to pull out your wand, Ginny," he told her ungainly, holding his hands up in surrender and stepping towards her in his muggle suit. "I just want to have a chat or something." He smirked down at her and raised an eyebrow. "Whatever you want to do."

"I want you to go," Ginny said determinedly, pulling out her wand and pointing it at his face, hand shaking slightly. "Leave me alone, Jeremy. Go back and talk to Hannah."

"I want to talk to you though," he told her, also pulling out his wand. "We'll sit out here, just us two. C'mon, you were always one to leave a party early." He smirked at her again, and looked her up and down in a way that made her shudder.

"I have a boyfriend!" She told him huffily, taking a step away from him and gripping her wand tighter, pointing it at his face. "And I wouldn't leave with you even if I didn't!"

He took a step lazily towards her. "Potter, isn't it?" Jeremy drawled, sounding ridiculously Malfoy-like. He winked at her sleazily. "Sleeping your way to the top I see."

"Shut up!" She spat at him, and sidestepping past his advance, she turned her back towards the door into the reception. "Just shut up!"

"So he doesn't know about you and your sordid past?" He asked her coldly, inching closer. "Surprising. Your story is getting almost as infamous as his. It makes sense though, both desperate drunks."

Ginny's grip around her wand tightened further, her knuckles turning bone white. While he was just talking about her, Ginny had been able to deal with that. But now he had started on Harry, sweet Harry who had saved both the world and her, she found herself shaking with pent up fury.

"I'm going to walk back into there," she told Jeremy in quiet anger. "You're going to walk back inside in five minutes. You won't talk to Harry. You won't talk to any of my family or friends. You won't say anything about this conversation or what has happened in the past. You will talk to Hannah, and you will pretend you don't know me."

"Running from the past, are we?" He taunted her sourly. "Don't want Potter to find out you're a hooker?" He smirked again. "You don't get paid for it though, do you?"

Seething, Ginny ignored this, turning from him to walk back into the reception, and hopefully find Harry.

"Wait," Jeremy commanded her, seizing the back of her dress hastily. Ginny heard a loud crack as she felt the shoulder of her dress rip in his hand. She spun around quickly, firing her infamous Bat-Bogey Hex at where he should be standing. Only... he wasn't.

Ginny's curse hit the wall, cracking the plaster and causing little bats made of wet paint, not the usual snot, to start attacking the wall. She heard an "umf" above her, and a wand clattered down to her feet. She looked up above where Jeremy had been standing. He was suspended in mid-air by his ankle, and not looking at Ginny, but towards the door. She spun on the spot hastily to see a livid looking Harry striding towards her, wand trained on Jeremy.

"Are you okay?" He asked her when he reached her side, angry emerald eyes softening as he looked down to her. She nodded as he pulled her into an intense tight one armed hug. He ran his wand over the shoulder strap of her dress gently in what Ginny knew was a non-verbal reparo spell, not taking his eyes off her face.

"How long have you been here?" She asked him quietly, rubbing his stomach appreciatively as he kissed the crown of her head tenderly.

"A couple of minutes," he told her calmly. She looked surprised that he hadn't said something before. "I knew you could take care of yourself," he answered her unspoken question, causing her to beam widely at him.

A voice came from above. "So you know your girlfriend is a slut then?"

Turning away from Ginny, Harry's face lost all of the understanding softness he had faced her with, and flicking his wand almost lazily, he caused Jeremy to crash unceremoniously back to the ground. Another flick of the wand, and Jeremy was forced back on his feet, looking frazzled and clutching the wrist he had just sprained in landing.

Harry just looked at him, daring him to say something.

"Does it bother you?" He asked Harry after a moment, the two men staring each other down relentlessly.

"Go inside, Gin," said Harry, not taking his eyes off Jeremy.

"No," Ginny told him firmly. He didn't even bother to act surprised at her answer.

"Please, Gin?" He asked her desperately. "I don't want you to see this. I don't want you here."

"You need me here," she said quietly, not referencing the conversation they were actually having in the slightest, more rehashing an old one to prove a point.

He turned to look at her briefly, his eyes twinkling in a slight smirk, his face telling the entire story; that he understood, they were in the same place they had been all those years ago. While at less of an extreme level, it was the same situation from the morning after Bill's wedding over again; he was telling her to leave him to deal with things by himself, pushing her away for her protection.

And she was telling him the exact same thing as she had then; she was staying, calling his bluff. And she did it confidently, knowing he wouldn't shove her to the side; he'd done that before, and the results had been disastrous. She knew he wouldn't try it again for one simple reason; they'd been through too much lately to want to risk all the progress they had made. It all meant too much.

Harry saw it for what it was; a power struggle of sorts, Ginny testing him. With four words, she had won before it had even started, and by her triumphant look, Harry knew she realised it too. Harry had a couple of choices. He could respond the same way he had back at the Burrow after Bill's wedding, with a simple 'I don't need you here' like last time, and Ginny would walk away as everything they had been working for together fell to pieces.

Or could admit he had been wrong. It would be final, definite. If they ever argued about it again, she had automatically won because he'd already said so. And there was something final, something appealing about that, knowing what was done is done, and dealing with what was left.

It didn't really matter, losing to Ginny felt like winning anyway.

"Stay then, I guess," Harry told her softly. "I need you here." A mocking laugh taunted them.

"So does it bother you?" Jeremy interrupted as Ginny beamed under Harry's gaze.

Harry glared back at him, letting him know precisely what was going on, not minding that Ginny was there now, knowing somewhere in him that she had to hear it anyway. "Yes it does."

"I knew it would bother you," the sleazy man responded with a nod. "There's witches for marrying and witches for other stuff." Harry glared at him again as Ginny bit her lip and waited for this scene to unfold.

"It bothers me alright," Harry said harshly, half yelling. "It bothers me so much it drives me crazy. It bothers me so much that sometimes I look at a wizard and wonder if he knows her. It makes me want to rip your bits off and feed them to a toad in front of you." He breathed in deeply, but went on. "It bothers me so much I have to make the unbearable bearable." His gaze flickered over to a solemn looking Ginny, but he caught her hand in his reassuringly.

"It doesn't so much anymore though," He went on after a pause in which he just glared down Jeremy. "For a while, it really did, knowing all that sort of stuff about her, hearing other people say horrible things as if they were a common occurrence."

"They are," informed Jeremy. Harry ignored him again.

"I realised why she did all that," Harry cited, his eyes glancing her way again. "It was because of what I had done to her." Jeremy raised his eyebrows, expecting an elaboration he wasn't going to get. "I really, really hurt her something shocking."

Harry paused for a moment, squeezing her hand. "And she wanted to get back at me." His voice had calmed and quietened significantly. "So think what you like about her, it's my fault anyway."

"I'll have no problems with thinking she's a slut," he said smugly.

"Just remember," Harry told him warningly as Ginny squeezed his hand impulsively. "That every time she looked at you, she only saw a way to hurt me, or to make herself feel better about me breaking her heart... or to make her feel more in control or whatever it is. Simply, it was all brought about by me and her hating the fact that I hurt her. If she touched your shoulder, here," Harry raised his free hand and traced it over Ginny's collarbone tenderly, "It was intended as a slap across my face. It was never about you or anyone else, it was about her and me and how much she hated me."

Ginny looked up at Harry, who was speaking with a sort of refined openness, his voice quiet and honest. "So I can deal with it bothering me. I know it was my fault to begin with, so I can't hold it against her. It was always about me."

"I don't know why you'd bother though," Jeremy said, scowling, clearly repulsed at the two of them. "It doesn't change the fact that famous Harry Potter is going out with a little tramp, no matter her reasons for being so."

"I bother because she's worth the effort," Harry told him harshly again, clearly irritated by the insult aimed at her.

"He's right about one thing," Ginny, who had kept her mouth shut and let Harry say what he had to say, now spoke in a calm, almost subdued voice.

"What?" Harry asked her, his eyes softening as he looked at her once more, hoping to Jupiter and back that she wasn't feeling insecure about them again.

"You are Harry Potter," she stated plainly, looking up at him as though she had just realised it. "And you could probably hex this guy so bad he can't tell his feet from his elbows." Jeremy visually gulped as he now looked at the wand Harry was still holding. Harry laughed openly.

"I'd let you do the honours though, Gin," he told her with a swift smile. She rolled her eyes at him happily. Jeremy was still standing there, and looked a little sickened at the two of them. Harry bent down to kiss her, but copped a shunning elbow in the ribs as Ginny nodded her head towards Jeremy.

"Oh," Harry said, slightly irritated. "Right. You," he addressed Jeremy, "are going to go back inside. You're going to sit with Hannah for about five minutes before you tell her you are feeling sick and are going home. Then you will leave."

Jeremy looked slightly angry, but too threatened to say anything as Harry gave him orders.

"You will not say anything to anyone about Ginny, or me, ever. You will leave her alone, because if you don't I will find you and let you know about it." Jeremy glared at him further, but didn't argue. With a last fleeting glance at the pair, he stormed back into the reception hall, music spilling into the entrance for a moment before the door slammed with a loud bang.

"I'm sorry," said Ginny immediately as the door shut. Harry looked at her exasperatedly.

"Stop apologising for everything," he sighed at her. "You really don't need to."

"I think I do," she went on quietly. He leaned in and kissed the top of her nose, causing her face to flush pleasurably.

"Don't apologise for things that aren't your fault," he told her firmly. "It's my fault you were angry at me. So everything's as much my fault as it is yours."

Sparing him a loving smile, she tugged his hand towards the door. "I s'pose we better go back in."

Harry pulled her back towards him, pretending to stretch out his arms and yawn. "I don't think so."

"Really?"

"Yeah," he told her thoughtfully. "I can think of plenty better things to do then go dance with your mum."

"Such as what?" Ginny asked, feigning ignorance. He didn't bother to answer.

* * *

"Where have you been?" Hermione launched onto a slightly dishevelled Harry forty minutes later. He was standing by the makeshift bar and sipping on a bottle of butterbeer, watching Ginny, who was dancing with her father. Hermione, noticing but ignoring his gaze, looked him up and down once, noticing his ruffled shirt, overly messy hair, slightly askew glasses and how his tie was noticeably off-centre.

"What?" Harry asked her, his eyebrows raised.

"You've been snogging my new sister-in-law, haven't you," stated Hermione primly. Smirking up at him, she fixed the two top buttons of his shirt and tie roughly.

"Only a little," Harry said slightly cheekily. She laughed at this as the song that the band was playing ended.

"You two are so enamoured," Hermione told him smartly. He had no idea what she meant, but figured she was saying something along the lines of cute or sweet. A moment later, Hermione had grabbed his sleeve and tugged him out to the dance floor.

"You could just have asked me to dance," he told her, spying Ron with his sister over her shoulder.

"We both know you wouldn't have agreed," Hermione told him gently as he placed a hand awkwardly on the small of her back. "Even if it is my wedding."

"Point," Harry laughed at her.

"You had no problem dancing with Ginny though," Hermione noted pointedly. Harry sighed at her.

"You're trying to get me to talk, aren't you?"

"Well, that's the only way you will!"

Harry laughed again, only slightly sourly.

"So?" Hermione prompted him after a moment.

"What do you want to hear?" Harry asked her, slightly annoyed. "How I'm madly in love with her and can't spend a minute without her?"

"Are you?"

"I wouldn't put it like that," he grumbled. "But yes, I suppose." Hermione squealed loudly, causing half the reception to stop talking and look at them, Ron and Ginny included.

"That's so-"

"Hermione," Harry said warningly, nodding his head towards everyone who was now watching the two of them.

"Are you going to go get married and have a bunch of kids with messy red hair?" She asked him quietly as everyone turned back to whoever they were dancing with and the chatter started back up.

"You sound like you've thought this through," he told her, rolling his eyes.

"Ron and I have been speculating," Hermione admitted. Harry snorted, looking over to his best friend to see him looking at them surreptitiously. "Surely you two have been talking about that?:

"We haven't," he informed her. "We've been-"

"Snogging? Shagging? Do I even want to know?" Hermione said jokingly, and Harry noted how odd this conversation would have been five years ago. Yet, since the war, everything seemed much more at ease.

"I was going to say talking about other things," Harry finished lamely.

"That's better," she told him, nodding slowly. "So, has she talked you into getting a job?"

"Yeah, kind of."

"And?" Hermione prompted again.

"Okay..." Harry trailed off. He went on tentatively, "At the moment, it's still a very, very basic idea, so don't laugh. I've talked to Lupin, McGonagall, Tonks and Kingsley about it, and they think it's a good plan."

"I doubt I'll laugh," she assured him.

"Okay," Harry repeated, inhaling deeply. "The whole time I've been avoiding getting a job, it's been because I couldn't think of anything I could do that's both worthwhile and not overly depressing. You know that." Hermione nodded; they had had this conversation before, albeit more briefly. "The way I put it to Gin was that I wanted to do something more helpful than fighting evil and protecting the world," Hermione laughed at his dry tone of voice here, "But I also wanted to do something that will somehow make things better after all that has happened with the war, something that I can enjoy a bit too."

"How very noble," she smiled, her voice just as dry as his had been. He rolled his eyes.

"So, that left me with no idea of what to do," Harry told her. "It's like all I really wanted was a way to somehow just erase everything Voldemort did to people. But Ginny," He looked over at the back of her head, where she was still dancing with her brother. "She just told me, made me realise that I can't make everything better, even though I want to. That no matter what I do, not everything will be okay. Oh, it sounds bleak," he went on, seeing the shocked look on her face, "but it's not. It's realistic. I can't help everyone, but I've found a way where I can help as many people as I can."

"So basically your saving people thing turned into a career?"

"More an occupation," he explained. "I won't make any money out of it, but that's okay. It's not like I need it."

"Are you going to hurry up and tell me what it is?" Hermione asked, slightly impatiently as the song ended and most of the people dancing broke apart. Harry saw Ron and Ginny look across the room to them, but he and Hermione stayed where they were as a new song struck up.

"I'm getting to it," he explained, smiling at her apparent impatience. "You know how all those Muggle celebrities have those charities they help run? And they basically use the fact that they are famous to get people to help others who are worse off then them? I want to do that." She looked at him for a moment, carefully examining him.

"Harry, you do realise that most of those Muggles just do that so that they look good to the general public and can become more famous?" She said it carefully, her voice straining with quiet.

"Yeah," he told her. "But I don't care about that, you know I don't. It's just," he shrugged his shoulders slightly, "I mean, I've realised that no matter what I do, people are going to watch me and follow my every move. I might as well use it to my advantage, right?"

"Right," Hermione replied, looking back at him curiously. "You're serious about this, then?"

"Very," Harry told her honestly. "Just think about it. How many kids won't be able to go to Hogwarts because their dad died and they can't afford it? How many parents are like the Diggory's and have lost their kids?" He was starting to get into a rant. "What about those kids of Death Eaters that are rotting in Azkaban? What they did wasn't the kids' fault, and-"

"What about kids like you who grew up with their horrid relatives because their parents died?" A little familiar voice spoke from his shoulder, slightly behind him, bearing a tentative, gentle forcefulness. He dropped his arms from dancing with Hermione, spinning around to see Ginny looking up at him intently, Ron standing next to her, also watching him, his head cocked slightly to the side.

"Y... yeah," Harry mumbled, meeting her relentlessly understanding gaze with one of his own. She slipped her hand into the one that was now hanging limply by his side. "Or... or kids like Voldemort was, growing up in an orphanage with no-one who cared, or even ever spared a thought for him." He squeezed Ginny's hand before dropping it suddenly, realising it wasn't just them, Ron and Hermione around. Seeing this, Ron clapped him on his shoulder in a brotherly fashion.

"It's not just about money either though," Harry told Hermione earnestly, not bothering to explain to the other two what he was on about; Ginny knew and he wasn't going to take the time to explain the whole thing from the start to Ron at the moment. "I mean, it's not like money can replace a person, but it can help a bit. It can just help make things that bit easier, and with money, there could be ways to get, I dunno, emotional support for people who are going through the worst experience of their lives. If everything can become just that bit easier for even one person," Harry breathed, "then it's worth doing."

Ron stared at his best friend, head still tilted slightly to the side in wonder. Harry seemed to have been eased somehow after this slight outburst of emotions.

"I..." Hermione said softly after a moment of silence between the four. The wedding was still continuing loudly around them, but everything seemed to dull in the brief moment before Hermione continued, "You're going to do a good thing, Harry."

She smiled at him momentarily as this acceptance seemed to sink in.

"I'm glad you think so," he said, grinning widely, all seriousness gone from his face. Ginny watched with slight exasperation as the sudden transformation crossed him; utterly serious one moment, almost joking around the next, and she was glad to see this light-heartedness in him.

"Right," the groom said after another moment of busy silence, still staring questioningly. "I have no idea what you two are talking about, but I came here to cut in, so I guess you can tell me now."

"Okay," Harry rolled his eyes as he seized Ron's hand, placing his other on his side awkwardly, as if he were about to dance with him. Hermione and Ginny laughed loudly as Ron threw Harry off him, cuffing him playfully around the head, half laughing and half disturbed.

"Piss off," Ron told him, and, reaching out for Hermione, they walked hand in hand off to dance, leaving Harry and Ginny alone at the edge of the dance floor.

He looked at her, and she was smiling up at him carelessly again. Not unwillingly, his face imitated hers, and not for the first time that night he wondered if all of the ridiculous happiness was going to make his face stick in the gleeful grin he had been wearing more often then not.

"I think," Ginny began in a cheeky undertone, "that you, Harry Potter,-"

"Should go talk to The Girlfriend, yes," Harry cut her off loudly in what he hoped was a resigned tone. She looked a fair bit miffed that he cut her off. So subtly that she wouldn't have been able to tell it was there unless she was looking for it, Harry nodded his head to just behind where she was standing to where Ginny knew that one or more of her parents or siblings now were.

"If you see her, tell her I want to have another chat with her in about an hour," said Harry, eyes flickering to where both Mr and Mrs Weasley were approaching the two slowly. Ginny smirked cheekily.

"I'll make sure she gets the message."

"Ginny!" Mrs Weasley exclaimed, stopping next to her daughter, her husband standing slightly behind her. "Where did Harry go? He ran off so quick he might as well have disapparated!"

"He said something about The Girlfriend," Ginny said smoothly, only half lying. Her father looked at her, ginger eyebrows raised, but said nothing. At Ginny's comment, Mrs Weasley started looking around rapidly, searching for where Harry was likely talking to the elusive figure.

"Dance with me, Ginny," Mr Weasley requested quietly, noticing his wife's new behaviour with a shake of his head. He led his daughter out onto the dance floor.

"Are you having fun?" Ginny asked her dad after a moment of dancing. Arthur was not looking at Ginny, but at his wife, who had caught up with Harry over at the other side of the room. She was clearly hassling him, and he looked a bit sheepish.

"I am," he answered after a pause. "Have you had a good time, Ginny?"

"Yeah," she said non-committing.

"It's a good day," he said mildly, now glancing to his son and new wife. "I'm very happy for them, even though I think they may be a bit young."

"I think people are enjoying the gloating aspect," said Ginny.

"Ron and Hermione getting married?" Mr Weasley said, sarcasm barely detectable. "I don't think anyone saw this coming." Ginny laughed. "I knew from the first time I met her, back before your first year when she met up with him and Harry when the three were getting their books from Diagon Ally. I turned to your mum, and she just nodded."

"I think everyone knew," Ginny laughed again, glancing over to her mother and Harry, who were now sitting at the table of Hagrid, Lupin and McGonagall. "Everyone knew but them for years. It was so obvious."

"You can't speak much about the obvious though, Ginny," he told his daughter, eyebrows raised knowingly, eyes glinting towards his wife and who she was tal- harassing.

Judging by the look on her father's face, Ginny knew the game was up, but feigned indifference anyway. "What are you on about, Dad?" He smiled at his daughter. Her ears were turning red, and that was always a tell-tale sign.

"Ginny, it's your mother you can trick, not me," he reminded her gently. "You know that there isn't much with you and your brothers that I don't see. Never has been."

"Shut up," was all she could murmur through a downtrodden grin.

"Though I don't think you and Harry were tricking anyone but your mother," he smiled benignly. "Not if you two are acting the way you were in the linsime." She didn't correct him.

"Oh, that was just to tease Fred and George," Ginny admitted, still blushing slightly. Her father grinned. "You- you're not going to tell mum, are you?" Her voice was filled with dread.

"I think I can wait until tomorrow morning to let that one slip," Mr Weasley assured her. "I realise that your mother can be slightly overbearing at times."

"That's an understatement."

"Maybe," he smiled again, as he spun his daughter with the music.

"And you're not going to pick on Harry either, are you?"

"Ginny, there's been plenty of time to get used to the idea," he explained. "While you think that Ron and Hermione's impending relationship has been obvious to everyone, you also have to realise that you and Harry have been to everyone too."

"What?" She asked, alarmed. He shook his head and smiled at her.

"I know for a fact that half the Order were betting on who would get married first," He said nostalgically. "As long as you and Harry don't get married for three months, I believe that Sirius won."

"We're not getting _married_," she said huffily.

"Good," her father told her as the music slowed. "You're only twenty, and while I think your brothers will approve of this, it's likely they will be like me and think that you are far too young for that sort of commitment at twenty."

"Err, okay Dad," said Ginny, suddenly finding this conversation awkward as the song ended. "I'm, going to go... um,-"

"I'm going to save The Boyfriend from your mother," he told her, blue eyes gleaming. "Enjoy the rest of your night, dear." He hugged her briefly.

Ginny stood there; slightly shell-shocked for a moment, and spotted Harry wandering towards the bar, decided she most definitely needed a drink.

* * *

Mrs Weasley was again in tears as the crowd of people at the reception gathered around Ron and Hermione an hour and a half later. The cake had been eaten (primarily by the Weasley twins and Hagrid), photos had been taken, dances had been danced, and it was time for people, starting with Ron and Hermione, to leave.

"Where are they?" Hermione whispered to Ron as large amounts of people were wishing them congratulations and good luck.

"No idea," he replied, peering over the heads of the nameless people standing in a cluster around them. They didn't need to bother clarifying to each other who they were talking about.

"They can't even bother to come say goodbye," Hermione sulked, arms crossed, a bouquet of flowers clasped in her right hand. "We should rename them Worst Man and Maid of Dishonour." Ron laughed at her as he turned to thank Lupin, Tonks and Hagrid for coming.

"Prats," he mumbled to his wife over his shoulder. She rolled her eyes at him as she hugged Neville.

"Where's your sister?" Mrs Weasley asked her youngest son as his immediate family approached them. Fred looked around in mock suspicion.

"And where's Harry?" He asked, pretending to rub his chin thoughtfully.

"Hmm," his twin said, copying the motion. "They're the only two people missing, I think." Hermione rolled her eyes again, this time at her new brothers in law, but Mrs Weasley seemed oblivious to the painful hints.

"I think we have to go," Ron told the people gathered around them loudly. "Thanks to everyone for coming."

"Throw the bouquet, Hermione!" A giddy Lavender Brown, who had spent most of the evening with Viktor Krum exclaimed. At the mention of the word 'bouquet,' all the unmarried witched pulled away from the group and gathered in a violent cluster near the door which was being watched by the wizards and married witches with mild amusement.

"I'm not throwing it unless Ginny's there," she told Ron in an audible undertone.

"You're not going to go look for them are you?" He groaned quietly. "I don't want to walk in on her snogging my best mate!"

"Come on," she said brightly, holding the precious flowers in her hand and striding off to where the toilets were behind the stage where the band had played. Ron followed her closely, and in a ridiculous little procession, the wedding guests all followed. They waited outside curiously as Hermione entered the female toilets, Ron the male. They both emerged after half a minute, and shook their heads to each other. The twins smirked to each other, knowing exactly who the newlyweds were looking for.

Ron and Hermione led the awkward group around the room, checking behind the large ferns. The group fell into curious chatter, still following Ron and Hermione blindly around the room. Once the two reached the end of the room, clearly unsuccessful in their search, Ron indicated wordlessly to the door. Hermione nodded, and they led the parade back across the room towards the door to the entrance which led to outside. They got to the door together, and each pushing one of the double doors, they entered with a bang.

Harry and Ginny were snogging passionately in the centre of the room, moving together seamlessly. Bodies pressed together, he was holding her so tightly around the waist that her toes were hovering two inches off the floor. Her arms were wrapped around his neck, one hand snaking into his hair, and his dark jacket, much like her dress, was crumpled wildly, tie hanging loosely around his neck. Her hair had fallen out of the bun she had worn it in all night, and now was framing her face messily; her makeup smeared slightly. They didn't stop kissing as the door opened, but as the loud voices of the people that had followed Ron and Hermione into the room ceased suddenly, they pulled away from each other, simultaneously turning their heads, eyes wide to look at who had just burst in.

They both turned scarlet as Harry and Ginny saw the faces looking back at them. Ron and Hermione both looked somewhere between irritated and amused, Fred and George were grinning evilly. Mr Weasley and Lupin both looked a mixture of shocked and pride. Harry lowered Ginny back down to the floor slowly, and they separated slightly as her toes touched the ground with a little scuffle.

"Tumbleweed," Fred said obnoxiously after a moment of tense silence, throwing a balled up napkin across the ground. It bounced past Harry and Ginny's feet and rolled up to the wall. It broke the solid wall quiet, some of the crowd bursting into little snickers. Harry took a slight glance back to Ginny. She had stopped blushing, and now looked rather unabashed. She faced him and, tugging her arm free of where it had been entwined with his, she straightened his tie with a gleeful smirk.

"Oh, honestly," Harry heard Hermione sigh, and he looked to see her marching towards them. She lifted Ginny's arm up, and carefully wedged her bouquet of flowers in the crook of Ginny's elbow.

"Let's go, Ron," She called as Harry tried not to grin at the flower arrangement now sitting in Ginny's arm.

Ron followed Hermione's route to the door, beaming at the two of them, also shaking his head in a teasing, playful manner. He clapped Harry on the shoulder again and muttered "good luck" as he passed. The door to outside opened and closed, releasing the newlyweds with a bang.

Still facing Ginny, Harry gulped, eyes flickering towards the assembled crowd nervously.

"But, what about The Girlfriend?" Mrs Weasley asked in shock. "Unless... oh. Oh!"

"Merlin," said Ginny exasperatedly, and Harry saw her roll her eyes out of the corner of his.

"And she finally got there," Fred announced loudly, causing several more people to snicker at the predicament that Harry and Ginny were in.

"Oh!" Mrs Weasley cried again, blubbering she ran blindly towards them.

"No," Ginny moaned softly at her approaching mother.

"Hold on tight," Harry whispered to her, struck with a sudden idea.

Mrs Weasley was barely a foot away from them when Harry jerked suddenly, spinning on the spot with Ginny grasping his forearm, and the two of them disappeared into gloating nothingness. They'd have to face the overbearing mollycoddling soon enough, but for one night, they were going to escape that and just enjoy that they had each other.

* * *

A/N: Well, the epilogue to this is coming soonish (as is my idea for a new fic), so for the moment, please feel free to review! 


	14. Epilogue

**Fix You**

A/N: Well... This is the end of this... Bigger note at bottom

**Epilogue**

* * *

_  
31__st__ October, 2002_

_  
__**Hunting Harry: One Year Later...**_

_  
__It has been one year since our world was saved. One year since the Boy-Who-Lived lived once again. And for a long time we here at _Hunting Harry _have been chasing down the Chosen One for an interview. And almost five on, we've got it at last._

_  
__It took us forty-three owls (not that we're counting) to get Harry Potter here, but at last he is. He comes in, looking wary, and with much trepidation he sits down and accepts the offered butterbeer. _

_  
__Wearing muggle jeans and a t-shirt under his dark grey robes, he is tall, "but not as tall as (best friend) Ron (Weasley)," he tells us later on. Harry is polite and charming from the moment he walks in, but also unbeknownly intimidating, and even without knowing he is the man that saved the world, he seems to be a person that not many would like to cross. Harry is quiet to begin with, but it doesn't take us long to get him talking despite the talk of his closed-off nature._

_He looks shocked when we begin with asking him about his charity work; his glasses almost slip off his nose and eyebrows shoot up into his hair (which, girls, is as hopelessly messy as it seems in the photos). It's quite obvious that he was expecting us to question him on the downfall of the Dark Lord or his much publicised personal life.  
_

"_It's called _Choices_," he tells us enthusiastically."It's a foundation of sorts, and in basics, what I'm trying to do is raise the awareness that, despite the war being over, the repercussions are still going to remain for a very long time. And, regardless of what some people have been thinking the last couple of months, I'm not trying to make money of it.  
_

"_I think that the grief of what has happened to people from" Potter uses his name carelessly, looking slightly annoyed at the shudders of the people in the room, "reign is bad enough by itself that people shouldn't have to worry about the Healer's bill every time they get a check-up on the old war injury, or if it is possible to afford to send the kids to Hogwarts since the parents aren't able to work anymore after the Death Eater attacks, and even just giving people the support that they need to know that they're not going through this alone."_

_  
__Harry's smiling and making motions with his hands, quite clearly passionate about his work. He seems wiser than his twenty-two years, and far more mature than his rumoured behaviour from earlier this year._

_  
__"Everyone's got to grow up sometime," he informs us as he shrugs his shoulders at this comment. "I just did it quicker than most. But that's always been the way with me anyway."_

_  
__"And all that stuff earlier in the year was rubbish anyway," he tells us as we ask him about this behaviour, and surprisingly he is not as closed about his personal life as many people have said he would be. "No drinking myself into oblivion every night or hanging around with muggle drug lords, no."_

_  
__He tells us this with a laugh and a grin, seeming amazingly bright and happy, laughing at himself and not even slightly standoffish as we here at _Hunting Harry_ had expected him to be._

_  
__"We need all the help we can get," Harry tells us about his work. "If everyone who could just gave a few galleons to us, it would make so many people's lives so much better without much effort on anyone's behalf._

_  
__"The plan is that it's not just going to be for people who have suffered through the war, just a benefit system in general. If it's in my ability to make people's lives a bit easier, for any reason, that's what we'll do."_

_  
__We then move on to the part which, with a scornful smile and shake of his head, Potter lets us know he has been expecting ever since he walked into the _Daily Prophet_ head office._

_  
__"My personal life," he sighs, stretching back on his chair. "What do you want to know? I s'pose I can tell you a bit to get people off my back."_

_  
__"No, (Best Friend and wife of Ron Weasley) Hermione's not pregnant, as far as I know anyway," he chortles to our question. "I still see them at least every couple of days. They've been married, oh, six, seven months now, and they're going good, again, as far as I know anyway. They're both still working at the Ministry. After they got married, I ended up moving out of the flat the three of us were sharing. It was my wedding present to them, I guess. A rather expensive present._

_  
__"I moved in with Ginny (Weasley)," he admits after a moment of prompting, clearly not overly comfortable with talking about his girlfriend in public, which is unsurprising after the rumours that plagued Ms Weasley after the shock revelation of her relationship with Mr Potter at her brother's wedding._

_  
__"Fiancée," he corrects us in a rather guilty tone when he is asked about his girlfriend, again sounding as though he'd rather not talk about it publically, yet forcing back a smile at the mention of her name. We quickly question when this development happened._

_  
__"When I asked her or when she said yes?" He nervously half laughs. "I first asked her ages ago, but that was in the middle of a fight, so I don't think she even got around to answering. It was her twenty-first birthday in August; we've been engaged since then._

_  
__"No date yet, but it's all Mrs Weasley asks me whenever I see her. It makes it half tempting just to elope. We're not going to though," he adds quickly, as though reassuring his future mother-in-law through this article. This is when we get the nerve to bring up the topic which we know Harry is going to get at least slightly worked up over._

_  
__"It's all rubbish," he told us automatically, a slight harshness coming into his voice when we bring up the issue of Ms Weasley's alleged promiscuity during the war years. "Ginny gets all that nonsense thrown onto her just because she's with me. She doesn't deserve it, her family doesn't deserve it and I don't deserve the fact that people seem to be looking for the worst in her._

_  
__"We were together when we were back at Hogwarts then broke up when I decided to be, as she puts it 'all stupid and noble'," he says this, the scathing tone going slightly from his voice. "We kept it quiet from most people, her family included, but for years and years it has pretty much just been that we were seeing each other, even when we weren't. So when people come out saying things like they were dating her or worse, I know it's not true, obviously she knows it's not true, and everyone who we care about know those things are not true, and they don't need to ask simply because they see us shrug it off whenever it comes up."_

_  
__"The problem is that it is horrible and it hurts even though there is no truth behind it. I hate the fact that Gin has to deal with public abuse and harassment on almost a daily basis just because of her relationship with me." He says this with what is clearly subdued anger. "It's sad when people need to attack her to hurt me or to split us up or whatever it is they are trying to do."_

_  
__He chats with us a bit longer, mainly about the chances of the English team in the Quidditch World Cup, where Potter's friend and ex-captain Oliver Wood from Puddlemere United is playing Keeper. He glances at his watch, starting slightly as he sees the time, telling us that this interview was not nearly as horrible as he was anticipating it to be, and he actually has to go._

_  
__"I'm sure I'll talk to you again sometime," he tells us, slightly begrudgingly yet smiling. "If you are going to be so ridiculous to stalk me anyway."He leaves us with a smile, wave and slight pop of apparation._

_Yes Mr Potter, you will see us around._

* * *

**A/N: **Well… That's it. It's finished. It's weird, I started this six plus months ago, and now it's finished, over. 

I feel like I've definitely become a much better writer through this, and I can't help but be proud of my perseverance with writing. I think the next time I write (which is only going to be a bunch of oneshots for a bit), I won't be quite as melodramatic as I was in this…

I just want to say thank you to everyone who has read this, an even bigger thank you to everyone who has ever reviewed. Every review means a whole lot more than the two minutes it takes to submit. I'm just going to single out a bunch of people here:

**Carla:** a big thanks for all the reviews, and an even bigger one for betaing and encouragement. It's just so good to know that all the stupid little mistakes I make can be picked up and I'm not going to get a bunch of reviews complaining about grammar. I really appreciate the time that you've put in to helping me.

**Knightsbridge:** for taking the time to leave long, detailed reviews on both sites that make me feel like I'm getting across what I'm trying to. Your reviews are _always_ a highlight when I'm posting a new chapter, and they even make up for the ones that say simply that Ginny is being a slag and Harry is stupid. You see what I'm doing to the characters and why, then leave literate responses and constructive criticism. I really appreciate all the kind words and encouragement you've sent my way.

**Eaglesnest:** similar reasons to above, getting reviews that are constructive and looking below the surface to see the bigger picture.

**Merliedog: **again, similar reasons. Your reviews, especially for the earlier chapters just really questioned me on everything I was trying to get out but hadn't yet. Just someone analysing what I was trying to do and pointing out all the strenghths/weaknesses that I did think about when writing, and tried to consider how it would come across to people other than me. Thanks.

**Ravenreux,** **Nymphadora, Weirdgirl, Nutters4Potter, Bellatrix06, Ginny Guerra: **just all the great reviews and encouragement. I'm putting all you together just because it's easier than retyping the similar stuff over and over. Seeing people who would review every chapter without fail made me smile!

And, again, to everyone else. I hope people enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it.

Now it's time for…

_**THE PLUG(s)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**_

Okay, well I'm not going to do another multi-chapter fic yet. I have an idea that I really love that at the moment is bearing the overly lame working title of _Ginny Weasley and the Deathly Hallows_ because that's basically what the story is; DH from Ginny's perspective. I'm not going to start writing (or posting at the very least) until December, as I am doing my equivalent of NEWT year that goes until November, so I'm trying to focus on school until at least then… So look for it then?

I'm in the process of doing a bunch of oneshots. _A Weasley Tradition_ is set about twelve years after DH, and is actually going to be a Teddy/Victoire fic with (as usual) and H/G background. It should be up nowish, so read it!

I have an idea for a HBP missing moment, _Purple Socks and Raspberry Jam_ is going to be just a cute little sixth-year Burrow-Christmas thing. It popped into my head about four hours before the new book, but I really love the idea anyway, which I won't go into overly. I also have a vague idea for a oneshot that makes me laugh when I even think about what it's about. H/G centric naturally, but I won't say what it's about other than the working title, which is _Naming the Kids_.

So yeah, feel free to go read/keep an eye out for this stuff.  
**  
**And again, thanks everyone!


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